Fate Lagoon
by iNFAMOUS X
Summary: Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.
1. Divergence

Fate Lagoon

Summary:

Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.

AN:

Well, Hataraku Aizen Chan is still in the works. I'm only starting this one up as the idea kinda hit me and I'm curious how far the muse will take me. It's a relatively new concept in theory. There are a lot of Fate Stay Night Crossover concepts, but nothing really going the route I'm planning. I also haven't seen any Black Lagoon/Fate X overs.

I will admit that Gabriel Blessing's In flight and Hill of Swords, as well as Marcus Galen Sand's Godslaying Blade Works is an inspiration to write Fate Stay stuff.

Let me start out by saying, I really didn't like Shirou at first. I did like Archer though. I really felt Archer could be the grizzled Anti Hero that appears and just oozes Gar and Badassness. Since reading Gabriel's work though, I've come to sortof like Shirou's contrasting idealism and passive easy going nature, and his sword spamming, legendary weapon swinging deadly warrior side.

Now one of the first things people ask about these sorts of stories is what route does Shirou come from? I will reveal the circumstances of his origins bit by bit through flashbacks and character exposition. However let me state clearly, this is a custom Route.

I just finished up a animation project and I need a break to relax and do something else for a bit. I don't have any real definite plans for this one. There's probably a high probability of it never really reaching its full potential. I won't know till I start writing and get into it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the two properties Fate and Black Lagoon. They are the property of Kinoko Nasu and Rei Hiroe respectively. This is a non profit fanfiction done for the sake of improving my storytelling and expanding my skillsets.

Key:

Flash backs, thoughts, omniscient perspective

Emphasized points

Normal speech

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><p><span>Chapter 1: Divergence<span>

_And I recall his Dream._

_The memory of the guy that was set up as a hero.._

_The story of a knight who's end came at a place I can't reach.._

_This hill is his world._

_This desolate land is what the man who kept on fighting for others obtained.._

_I guess he smiled and died in satisfaction in this place…_

_"__He's seriously stupid."_

_That's right, it just makes me mad.._

_He really tried his best, He worked hard and even though he was only an ordinary person, he was able to achieve a miracle with his blood._

_But, it's a lie._

_He made many people happy, so he should be happier than all of them combined._

_But.._

_He did not receive such a reward. _

_At least.. not yet…_

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><p>"Alright jap, I'll ask you one more time. Where is the package you got from that Asahi Industries Headquarters in Tokyo?"<p>

Shirou sighed and ran a tan hand through his white hair. "I really don't know what you're talking about. This is supposed to be a vacation for me."

The large black man and Asian woman standing next to him leveled their Pistols on the confused Japanese man. The woman roughly grabbed him by the collar of his black shirt and placing her gun to his head she began to search him. Shirou was wearing a short sleeve black collared shirt and dark blue jeans with white and red sneakers. The woman thoroughly checked them all.

She finally finished after finding nothing on him short of a small ruby necklace. She snapped the gem from his neck and roared in annoyance. "Che, this guy aint got shit on him. The info was wrong!"

"We're done with you then, you're useless to us" interrupted the Black man in a gruff tone.

The brown haired asian woman narrowed her equally chocolate colored eyes. "Dutch, This is a pain in the ass. I say we kneecap this pussy."

Shirou raised an eyebrow and adjusted his seated position "That's not really gonna work for me, I'd prefer to keep my knees intact and bullet free." Despite his sarcastic remark and his flippant demeanor, in his mind a hammer cocked back and a metaphysical trigger slowly began to depress as OD circulated through his body.

The woman sneered and her finger began to curl on her own trigger. Suddenly a dark hand pushed down on the slide of her pistol. "There's no need." Dutch said with a shake of his head. Re holstering his own weapon, he motioned for the woman to follow.

"We may not have the disc but we can still turn this around, bring spike lee over there WIHTOUT filling him full of holes." He continued.

She glared at the white haired man still sitting on the deck of the ship.

"Shit, a hostage? Great we gotta deal with mister bad ass over here who thinks he can wisecrack when he's got a gun in his face." She grumbled as she hoisted the White haired man up to his feet and barked at him to march. "Get your ass moving, I might not be able to turn you into swiss cheese but I can still pistolwhip you into ground beeef!"

Shirou maintained his lazy attitude, but his eyes were carefully surveying the rest of the hostages on the ship. If his own capture meant that the others were safe then that was a small price to pay.

Dutch made some threats that Shirou was unable to hear as he was marched onto the boat and led down a narrow metal hallway by the unnamed brown haired oriental woman.

Soon they were speeding away from the boat and Shirou noted that all the other passengers were safe and appeared to be unharmed as they floated there in the water.

Shirou let out a sigh and relaxed his posture.

The woman at his side turned and her annoyed expression on him. "What are you so relieved about dipshit? Because of your useless ass we aint got squat for our time out here! You better hope someone over in your backwards little Island chain gives enough of a shit about you to fork over some major cash or you're gonna find yourself at the bottom of the South Pacific!"

Dutch moved a hand between the woman and Shirou to separate them. "Alright", he said platonically. "We need him alive for now, so try to keep cool Revy."

He turned to Shirou. "Ok, Jap, here's the deal. There should only be one Japanese male on that ship and he was supposed to have a computer disc on him. Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

Shirou frowned and folded his arms as he leaned against the wall of the cabin. "Well, to be honest I was supposed to board a different ship. I was on that ship by mistake as they sent me the wrong ticket. I'd imagine that the person you're looking for got my original ticket and is headed to Macau."

Revy growled. "Well that's just perfect.. how we gonna go get that little shit before he get's capped and the disc stolen if he's all the way over there?!"

Dutch sighed. "Alright, so we're goin with hostage negotiation then." He poked Shirou in the chest. "You got anyfamily with cash Jap?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, I don't have any family or friends left. I made some decisions that ended up burning all the bridges I had with my friends. Sorry to tell you but you won't get any money from kidnapping me."

Dutch palmed his head. "This is great; can this day get any worse?"

Revy jumped up and poked a pistol into Shirou's face."If he's useless and we aint gonna get anything for him I say he smoke 'em and dump his body."

Dutch grabbed him and pulled him away from Revy's gun as he ushered him towards the door. "Just chill out for a sec, we might need him for info. Come with me jap, let's go topside for a smoke."

Shirou allowed himself to be led through the narrow hall and to a small ladder that led up to the top deck of the ship. He continued to slowly apply self-reinforcement magecraft as his captor reached for a cigarette. He offered one to Shirou who took it with a calculating expression.

Dutch noticed Shirou's expression and lit his own cigarette before tossing Shirou the lighter. "Relax, it's not what you're probably thinking. The truth is we're really nothing more than Delivery Boys. Sometimes we have to break the rules to put food on the table, but in the end that's all we really amount to."

Shirou lit his own cigarette and tossed the lighter back to Dutch with a shrug. "In my experience everyone breaks the rules when it comes time to put food on the table. Humans are scary like that."

The two smoked in silence as the sun slowly began to set casting an orange tint over the clear water beneath them.

Dutch chuckled humorously finally breaking the silence. "Is that so? Tell me kid, what's your name?"

The tan skinned man with snow white hair falling in a spiked mop around his forehead let out a final blow before dropping and crushing the cigarette under his shoe. "Emiya Shirou."

Dutch nodded and finished off his own cigarette. "Emiya huh.. I like it. It's a good name."

Shirou smiled as he looked up into the evening sky. "Yeah it is."

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><p>By the time the boat pulled in to dock it was already night time. Dutch hopped off the boat and his dark combat boots made a dull thud on the wood of the dock. "So are you gonna tag along Emiya?"<p>

Shirou blinked in surprise. He'd been observing the crew for the last hour and had come to the conclusion that he had no idea what they would do. They seemed like a motley unpredictable group. That girl, Revy in particular was ridiculously over the top. She was obviously violent and aggressive, and he actually found himself thankful that she seemed to be fairly simplistic enough that he could slightly predict her actions. The rest of the crew was shrouded in mystery.

Shirou shrugged as he got up from his sitting position and stretched his back. "Where are we going exactly?"

A youthful blonde man with long scraggly blonde hair and glasses answered him. "We're goin to grab something to drink." The man smirked and hopped off the boat and followed the path hat Dutch had left towards. Shirou followed along after him and before long he found himself in front of what could have been either a bar, or a gun show. There were more weapons on the tables and strapped to the backs of the patrons then he had seen on some battlefields.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the feel of a hand clapping his back.

He turned to see Dutch gesturing around him. "This place was founded by the South Vietnamese soldiers who survived the war. Eventually they began taking in fugitive soldiers as well and before you know it bam, you get this shithole." Dutch took a long swig of his drink and chuckled. "Hookers, Merc's junkies, hit men; you name it they got it. It's a cesspool of humanities worst scum."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't say that. Trust me I've seen the worst humanity really has to offer before. It has a name."

Shirou could still hear it if he listened closely. The sound of the flames licking at his heels, the screams of agony and hateful curses spewing forth from that thing..

Dutch barely acknowledged him. "Is that so? I wonder about that. What would some privileged little wanna be thug who dyes his hair to look tough, but has enough cash to go on a cruise vacation know about that?"

The man rose from his seat and walked away from the group."I'mma go make a call, watch him Benny."

The glasses wearing blonde nodded as he tilted his glass sloshing the liquid inside around in salute. "Roger." He remarked before turning to his white haired neighbor.

"Dutch is a little bit unusual" Benny as said lifted his glass to his lips. He took a small sip before continuing. "Even after 2 years I still don't get him. Trust me, him and Revy aren't the kind of people you can figure out."

"Damn straight!" exclaimed the aforementioned Revy. Her brown ponytail whipped around her head as she slammed her pistol onto the counter between them. "And that's just the way I like it. The only thing anyone needs to know about me is how fast I pull the trigger."

She turned to Shirou and regarded him with mild disgust. "We aint little wannabe's like you white head, this is the real deal you can take your fantasy tough guy shit and shove it where the sun don't shine."

Revy raised an eyebrow at Shirou's empty glass. "I will admit though, I am curious. You think you can drain real liquor the way you chug that piss you've been sipping?" She took a bottle of Bacardi and poured it into two cups sending one of them sliding down and knocking Shirou's empty glass away.

Shirou regarded the glass and moved it to the side before letting out a sigh. "How unfortunate, it seems I'm being underestimated again. I've been abducted by quite a peculiar little group."

Revy smirked and raised her glass to her lips before chugging the entire thing in one shot. "Weeeell, that's fine. If you don't even have the balls to keep up with a woman I won't hold it against you."

The white haired man raised an eyebrow.

Revy's brown eyes took on a mischievous twinkle. "Buut, I might wanna put a little dress on ya with some nice pretty ribbons and take you out for a night on the tow-."

Shirou chuckled and shrugged before leaning forward and grabbing the bottle Revy had poured from. He interrupted her mid-sentence by lifting the bottle to his lips and tilting it to her in a toasting manner. Revy's eyes bugged out in disbelief as the Japanese man drained the remnants of the bottle in 5 seconds flat. Shirou wiped his chin with the back of his hand and smirked at the speechless Asian woman.

Revy finally gathered her wits and narrowed her eyes. A vein bulged on her forehead and Shirou was almost worried about her until she finally exploded and roared out. "Hey Bartender! Get me all the Bacardi you got right now!"

What ensued was a drinking contest that would have been remembered for months to come if not for the much larger event that would overshadow it.

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><p>Dutch frowned as he gripped the phone to his ear harder. "That wasn't the deal." He gritted out. The voice on the other side sounded amused. "Oh, but Dutch.. you can see the problem right? You failed to acquire the package so I had to resort to other means. Don't worry I've already secured it so that's not really an issue, but these EO mercenaries the Asahi Corp has sent in.. I really don't have time to deal with them."<p>

Dutch glared at the phone and the feminine voice on the end chuckled as though she could hear the distaste in his expression. "You deal with these pests, and I'll forget your little mishap on this mission."

The large black man pushed up his shades as moved closer to the receiver on the phone. "Let's be honest here Balalaika, we're going to be the sacrificial lambs to take the heat off Hotel Moscow. You want us to go out there and get killed so you can slink off into the night and make your profit!?"

The line was silent for a few moments before the icy voice of the Russian woman came through. "It's really a shame; you did impress me at times with your wit and perceptiveness Dutch. I suppose I may miss that at times, but ah well, Business is business you know."

Dutch sighed and pulled outa cigarette. He held it in between his lips. "Yeah" he mumbled. The voice on the end gave a chipper farewell. "Good luck." Then the line went dead.

Dutch didn't even bother putting the phone back on the hook. He reached in his pockets for a lighter and was about to bring it up to his face when he suddenly head a small rattling noise. Turning around his eyes bugged and he dropped the unlit cigarrete from his lips and dove into a closed room slamming his shoulder against the door and knocking it off the hinges.

The small grenade stopped rolling as it came to a rest in the middle of the dim hallway he'd just been standing in before going off in a small explosion spraying shrapnel in every direction.

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><p>Shirou saw the grenades hit the floor. His first thought was for the other patrons in the bar who were still oblivious. He grabbed the Bacardi bottle and hurled it at the main group huddled around a card table. The bottle smashed against their table and the group shot to their feet in fury. As they looked to see the disturbance, they caught sight o the grenades coming to a rolling stop and all dove for cover.<p>

Revy had already moved behind the Bar and was finishing off her own bottle when the explosions went off. A few people were caught in the blast but with a mutter of incantation a small nearly invisible shield shot up around the area of the grenades suppressing the range of the shrapnel. This allowed most people to escape unharmed.

Shirou's narrowed his reinforced eyes as he saw the group outside preparing to burst through the doors with Assault rifles. He dove behind the counter and turned to see Revy finish off the bottle and throw it up over the counter. The room suddenly exploded with gunfire as the mercs opened fire from behind the cover of their vehicles outside and started spraying.

The bottle she'd thrown in the air was shattered and turned to dust in the hailstorm of gun fire. Revy used the reflection of a falling piece of bottle to gage the position of he enemy before pulling out her own pistols and raising an eyebrow. "Wow, you've bullet proofed the bar?"

The Bartender finished loading his shotgun and nodded proudly. "Yep, it can handle up to .50 Cal." He said with a grin.

Shirou then watched as a .50 Cal round drilled through the armor and shattered the cooler to his left. "Revy" Dutch called from somewhere in the back. "I think now's a good time to show them why you're called two hands."

Revy narrowed her eyes and her gaze became distant. Shirou noted she was putting herself in a zen like trance similar to an aria.

The soldiers from outside suddenly burst in and their leader walked casually through the busted doorway. . He was a tall, scarred, and grizzled man with a blonde hair and small sunglasses. He licked his lips as he walked forwards enjoying the sound of glass and debris crunching under his combat boots. "Secure the area, I heard voices.. and there's nothing I hate more than survivors. "What a great line." Revy said with a manic grin before jumping out over the bar. Shirou watched her carefully hidden behind the bar and observed her movements.

Revy pushed off the bar as she shot two men point blank and then twisted in the air as she fired from all orientations. She landed on top of a soldier and kicked off his chest to leap onto a table firing her pistols to both sides. A group of soldier took aim and fired a concentrated burst then she avoided by rolling of the table and making a mad dash back towards the bullet proof bar. She fired behind her as she lept over and landed in a sitting position and immediately dropped the spent magazines from her Cutlass pistols.

As the baretender berated Revy for her involvement in the destruction of his bar Shirou made some mental note4s about her performance.

_I see, I was mistaken, she's not a soldier at all.. Her style is effective admittedly, but it's also reckless and amateurish.. She wouldn't last very long against some of the enforcers or even a decent Vatican Asset.._

Shirou frowned as he watched Revy reload and chamber her weapons. While being a blade user by choice Shirou was not unfamiliar with gun play and basic tactics. What Revy was doing was ridiculous. It was something that should only work in movies or Video games. A real gun fight was dynamic but it could be broken down into a few basic rules that Revy was breaking right and left.

There are two approaches when facing a superior enemy force. The first is use of cover and concealment. Using an advantageous position pick off targets and reduce their numbers while remaining relatively safe from return fire. This method also allowed for falling back for a strategic a retreat if need be.

The second method was to use continuous movement. This seemed to be Revy's approach but it was horribly flawed. The movement method required a changing of levels and firing positions while moving adding in lateral movement and broken rhythm.

Revy's approach of leaping into the air was suicide to most people. And yet, Shirou noted, It worked for her. She didn't seem to be concerned with return fire at all.

Shirou's thoughts were broken as Dutch called out to him from behind a corner. "Hate to break it to you, kid but at this point I'd say trading you is no longer an option."

Dutch dropped his own mag and pulled another from his pocket. "You really weren't part of our plans to begin with, so how about we just part ways here."

Shirou raised an eyebrow then surprisingly shrugged. "I see, well that's probably for the best, I'm sure I'd just slow you down and get us all killed. good luck to you."

Dutch did a double take and shook his head. "There is something seriously wrong with you kid.. Whatever, sorry it had to end this way but that's business."

With that he pulled another revolver out of his pocket and called out to his ally. "Revy, we're leaving!"

Revy nodded then she let the man she'd been using as a human shield go and shot him in the back before bolting out the door and along with Dutch they hopped into the car that Benny had retrieved and shot off down the road.

Several of the soldiers followed them outside and began firing at the car. Revy poked her head out the window and tossed a cooked grenade that exploded on contact and sent several soldier flying backwards. Their blonde captain walked out and watched the Red car speed down the road away from them and chuckled. "Well, well.. we aint dealing with some rank amateurs here, are we, this prey's got some fight in em."

Behind him 3 soldiers began searching through the Remainder of the bar and looking for survivors. Shirou watched as the Bartender suddenly sprung up and began firing on them with his shotgun. Noting a soldier flanking the bartender, he low crawled along the floor and grabbed the man's leg. A small application of Prana overcharged the man's ankle and snapped it. He fell to ground screaming and holding his leg and was shot in the side by a recovering patron who took cover behind a ruined card table.

Shirou rolled to the side to avoid being stabbed by a rifleman with a bayonet. He came up in a crouch and twisted to avoid the second stab. Moving offline from the muzzle he redirected the blade down and with another subtle overcharge the contact of the now brittle blade on the wooden floor snapped the bayonet and the barrel fell off. The man reached for his side arm at his waist, but Shirou caught his bent arm in a figure 4 keylock and cranked, causing the man to both flip over and dislocate his shoulder.

He knelt down on the collar bone of the disable soldier and stole his pistol. Shirou, in a move learned from one of his executioner comrades, shot his reinforced arm forward and violently twisted the wrist at the last moment, causing his shot to fire a curved bullet trajectory and emasculate a soldier standing over a frightened woman with his pants unzipped. The man crumpled to the floor in agony and the woman made a mad dash for the ruined doorway.

Suddenly the sounds of engines revving signaled the soldiers' withdrawal and the rest of the combatants fired off final shots at random before bolting out and speeding off in their vehicles.

Shirou frowned and slowly stood up nonchalantly dropping the spent clip and unchambering the final round. He idly depressed the decocking lever and the slide lock simultaneously before pushing down and removing the entire slide itself. His thumb caught the barrel and tension spring and he dropped the disassembled frame as he turned to observe the situation.

Idly fingering the cool metal of the spring he noted the wounded men stumbling out of the bar and the number who had been killed. He frowned as he realized that the majority of the patrons were dead and the bar was in shambles.

"Ah damn you Two Hands! That's it, If I see you again, I'm welding your asshole shut!" Shirou's attention was drawn to the raving bartender. The raging man turned to see Shirou standing there over the writhing man on the floor. "Well, look at you, those were some fancy moves you pulled off there kid."

The man narrowed his eyes. "You came in here with those Lagoon punks, you one of the new guns?" Shirou shook his head and sighed. "Not exactly, I was actually a hostage up until a moment ago. It seems I've been released though so I suppose it doesn't really matter."

The bartender raised an eyebrow. "A hostage? With your skills? Well aint that a trip, so what are you gonna do now?"

Shirou shrugged as he walked over to a small corner of the bar. The bartender kept his Shotgun on hand and watched Shirou warily. He nearly dropped his weapon in surprise though when the magus picked up a broom and dust pan and started sweeping the mess of debris and spent brass casings.

"Well first off, I'm going to see if I can get the floor cleaned up, then I'll see if we have any paint supplies in the back storage room. After that, I figure we could take out all the destroyed furniture and we'll probably need some plaster for the wall.." he trailed off as he began making measurement sighs with his hands.

The bartender dropped his jaw. "W-what? What are you talking about? You've never even been in here before, what are you going on about repairing it?!"

Shirou shrugged noncommittally. "Well, I might not look it, but I've got experience working in a bar for several years back in my hometown. Besides, this place is a wreck, you obviously could use the help and I'm glad to offer it. It was partially my responsibility since I engaged in the fighting as well."

The white haired enigma turned his golden eyes to rest upon the armed bartender. "As for introduction, My name is Emiya Shirou, pleased to meet you." Shirou's English wasn't great, but after spending so much time abroad he's learned enough to get his points across albeit slightly accented..

"Che, Bao's the name." remarked the still wary bartender.

With that the white haired man smiled good naturedly then went straight to work diligently sweeping up the hundreds of spent casings on the ground and Bao could only scratch his head in confusion. "Just what is it you hope to gain from all this? What's your angle kid?"

Shirou continued sweeping as a small smirk came over his face.

_"Hey Kiri, what do you wanna be when you grow up?"_ The words Kiritsugu had said to answer that question, the same words he'd spoken to Shirou on the night of his passing, would be repeated here.

"Well, to be honest.." He said softly. "I'd like to be a hero."

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><p>OK, that's the first chapter of Fate Lagoon. Feel free to comment and let me know what you thought and if you have any ideas or requests for the direction of the fic. Any beta readers that are interested in this story feel free to let me know. As of now, my beta is Mircosoft Word Auto spell lol.<p>

Please read and review.


	2. Call for a Miracle

Summary:

Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.

AN:

Holy Review Count Batman!

Wow, that was an unexpected wave of praise and response lol. I figured it was kind of a clever idea, but I guess that's the benefit of making a story in a new genre, you get all the traffic of anyone interested funneling to your story.

Thanks to everyone who commented or gave words of encouragement. There are quite a few reviews to respond to this time, so I'll get right into it.

First, to everyone who said they loved the premise and were excited to see it unfold, thanks you. One thing about my stories is that I usually flesh them out to a reasonable degree.

Several people said that they felt that Shirou was too calm and out of character. This could be true but it's more likely that the Shirou in this story has been shaped by a different set of circumstances than you might be used to.

I've mentioned before, this is a custom route. It is neither, Fate, UWB, or HF. It does originate from a known canon route though as you will no doubt infer from this chapter.

**demonicDRAMAqueen**: In answer to why Shirou called Revy an amateur, this was already explained in the chapter.

Let me first preface by saying that this strictly my opinion.

Revy and quite frankly Chang's style of gun play is completely absurd. It assumes that everyone they are fighting has no marksmanship at all. They frequently use both hands gun blazing either walking, running around or leaping into the air and shooting from all orientations. Both of them rarely actually aim using the metal sights, preferring to just use the point and shoot method.

Black Lagoon is supposed to be set in a realistic setting. Revy is not said to have any superhuman abilities. Her success is attributed to her high level of skill. As I stated however, in a gun fight like she engages in constantly, true skill would revolve more around footwork, stealth, and effective use of cover and evasive movements.

Two clear examples of this are her dismantling of Luak's pirates by jumping from ship to ship and calmly blowing them up one by one without so much as a grazing wound.

Her rampage on the Nazi ship where not a single soldier despite having a firepower, numerical, and home field advantage was able to scratch her as she walked around shooting people point blank without ever having to so much as dodge.

Now let me be clear. I like Revy. I think she's a very interesting character and I think she's a bad ass and totally worthy of the rep she gets. Hollywood action heroes get away with this kind of foolishness as well.

This does not excuse it though.

Revy is obviously not am amateur, but from Shirou's perspective, her approach was amateurish, and it is. If anyone else tried it they would be gunned down in seconds.

Believe me when I tell you, there are some real monsters in the Nasu-verse, and Revy will meet her match and discover the reality of her own limits. If fans of her are willing to stick with me, you will then see her acknowledge, accept, and eventually overcome those weaknesses and emerge a far more dangerous Revy then her cannon incarnation.

**CG-3m1y4: **In regards to his English I quote: "I ama da Bonu ova my swaad" I rest my case.

I did not pass up the opportunity to have him gun fight. He disarmed a mercenary, used a pistol and curved the bullet in the confrontation last chapter. His magecraft is so subtle and specialized that no one is going to really notice what he's doing. That's assuming that there is a Clocktower presence in Roanapaur.

A lot of people really liked the story so far and thought it had potential. I hope that you stick with it and enjoy my work.

Disclaimer: I do not own the two properties Fate and Black Lagoon. They are the property of Kinoko Nasu and Rei Hiroe respectively. This is a non profit fanfiction done for the sake of improving my storytelling and expanding my skillsets.

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><p>Key:<p>

_ Flash backs, thoughts, omniscient perspective_

**_ Emphasized points_**

Normal speech

Chapter 2: Call for a Miracle

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><p>00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000<p>

_For what did he fight, and for what did he keep running?_

_He never told anyone about his motives._

_Everyone around him either saw him as obstinate or a weird person. _

_See? It's inevitable that people would feel uneasy about him._

_He should have had a reason._

_Greed, pride, selfishness, lust, vengeance, or devotion._

_Simple reasons like those are easy to understand. If he had any one of them, such an end would not have awaited him. _

_His reward for success was always betrayal._

_He got used to it._

_He got used to it like an idiot.._

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><p><em>The fire raged all around him. The heavy scent of the smoke filled his lungs and threatened to drown him in an aroma of death and destruction. The white haired man wiped what he believed to be the sweat from his brow, but turned out to be caked blood and grime. The vision in his right eye was tinted red as blood has seeped into it and further impaired his advance. <em>

_But the white haired knight would not let himself be halted. He pushed on. All around him screams and cries of terror tore away at his resolve. Every death cut into him like a red hot blade. He knew that these souls were already doomed. He could only march forward to try to save those he could see. _

_He truly believed that if he could only save everyone who entered his sight, he would be fulfilled. _

_But already those in sight were fading. He was failing with every final gasp he heard._

_It's not fair._

_It's not fair at all. _

_But he knew this. Following the dark, lonely, and thorny path of the hero for so many years had driven the point home in a way he could no longer deny. _

_It's impossible to save everyone._

_ If you're not willing to at least make some sacrifices, then you can't save even a single person. _

_This war was ravaging the entire country. If something was not done to end it, the war machine would consume everything. _

_He needed more power. _

_An explosion rocked the ground in front of him and he was throws backwards. As his blurry vision came into focus he nearly vomited. There lying in front of him was the singed arm of a small girl. She was clutching in her hands a picture. The edges were bunt and blackened but he could make out three figures huddled together in a small shack. _

_In front of him a series of explosions rang out and the entire market area was set ablaze as more screams called to the abyss. His eyes widened and he fell to his knees in desperation. _

_"No, no please, I'll do anything please, I have to save them.. Please I need a miracle!" _

_Suddenly, the area seemed to freeze. The flames that had been licking at his heels stopped in mid wave. Everything was still as a bright light seemed to descend from the sky. The weary white haired man heard a voice. It sounded like thousands of voices at once all speaking in perfect synchronicity. _

_Strangely it felt female. What it said had a tone of amusement._

_ "Anything, you say?"_

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><p>Now, Mr. Kageyama, we from hotel Moscow have a code of honor."<p>

"Oh?" the middle aged Japanese man remarked. "I thought you were a representative of the Buganvillya Trade Company."

"As you can see." continued the scarred Russian Blonde. "We've followed through on our end of the bargain; we've even included a consolation prize."

She pointed to the young Japanese male in a white dress shirt and tie currently being shoved forwards by a large bald Russian man.

She pressed the disc to the middle aged man's chest. "So there shouldn't be any hard feelings." She smiled politely.

Kageyama shrugged as he took the disc and placed it in his coat pocket. "Of course not, the world is full of things.. that cannot be helped."

The Russian woman nodded. "Now it's your turn to follow through on your end of the bargain. We'll go over the details at the hotel."

Kageyama straightened his tie professionally. "Very well then."

"However," he turned to tilt his head at the Blonde woman who was still smiling at him. "There is the small matter of the associates we sent out to conduct negotiations originally."

The blonde woman opened her eyes slightly and her smile grew in size. "Oh, there's no need to worry about that. I have some old friends greeting them. I'm sure your dogs will be quite happy with the bones they receive."

Kageyama nodded to her. "I see."

He turned toward the car as the door opened for him and nodded at the young man in the dress shirt. "Thanks for your good work on this Okajima. Now come along."

The bald Russian roughly shoved him forwards and the Japanese man quickly scrambled to the car door after Kageyama. "Y-yes sir, thank you so much for rescuing me from this situation, I really don't understand everything that's going on, but I-"

Kageyama waved him off to interrupt him. 'That's not important now, you're safe and acted in a manner that any reasonable employee of Asahi Industries would be expected to. There's no need for any further consideration on the matter."

With that, the car door closed and the driver carefully turned back onto the main paths that lead into the city. The blonde woman and her associates smirked, and then climbed into their own vehicles to finalize their negotiations at a more secure location.

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><p>"If we maintain our current speed we should dock at Palawan port by daybreak. We can hopefully straighten things out with Balalaika there."<p>

Revy shrugged at Dutch's remark and continued to stare out at the ocean. Benny's steady tap of his keyboard provided an ambient background noise that set the mood.

Revy growled. "Argh, benny quit with that annoying tapping, shit I'mma head up and get some air." Revy jumped to her feet and headed out to lie on deck.

She started to drift off when the voice of Benny came through the receiver on her ear. "Hey, Revy you on deck? I'm picking up something and it's coming straight at us but it's not looking like a boat."

Revy rolled her eyes and turned to look at the horizon. Her eyes suddenly snapped open wide at what she saw. "It's a gun ship at minimum altitude!"

Dutch shifted the boat into high gear and blasted off to try to evade the incoming attack helicopter.

Revy climbed up to a firing point and slammed in the magazine for a .50 cal anti Tank Rifle. Pulling back the charging handle she growled out. "I'mma try to put down some return fire, maybe we can get them to increase their altitude."

She took aim and began firing on the Helicopter. The movement of the boat and evasive flight of her target made getting a clean hit nearly impossible. This difficulty was further enhanced as the gunship fired a set of missiles at the boat that missed and sent a spray of sea water into the air slamming into Revy and taking her bead off the mark. She growled and planted her boots on the now slippery surface of the firing deck and tried to re acquire her target.

Suddenly the gunship lowered down and unloaded a hail of .50 cal machine gun fire into the deck of the boat and Revy dove for cover abandoning her rifle and scrambling to get below deck.

Revy frantically searched through a pile of trash and miscellaneous gear for a secondary weapon to use. "Shit, we're sitting ducks down here, they could finish us off any time they wanted.. wait why'd they stop firing? "

Benny frowned as he stared at his screen in confusion. "Um guys, it says here they've fallen back about 5,000 meters and they're still tailing us from that distance."

Dutch pinched his face. "The channel." He sighed. 'The path to Palawan is filled with rocks and mangroves and they musta figured that out."

Revy stared at him in anger. "So the further we go in the tighter it's gonna squeeze and eventually we won't even be able to dodge.. shit those bastards are screwing with us! Dutch let's blow this joint."

Yeah." The dark skinned captain agreed.

He turned the boat to take a different route but was halted as suddenly missile fire rained down and he had to swerve to the right to avoid the oncoming volley.

Dutch lowered his head and sighed. "You all better not say I suck at this, but I guess I can't redeem myself now right."

Revy looked to the side. "Yeah I know. We had to go right."

Dutch turned to look out the window. They passed through a small channel and came across a large sunken ship.

" That's a great omen." Revy remarked sarcastically.

Benny turned form his seat. "Dutch, they just stopped by that sunken ship and they're hovering over it. I don't think they're chasing us anymore."

Dutch frowned. "We're not worth the effort to follow anymore, that's what this means."

Revy bit her thumb and narrowed her eyes out the window.

The Lagoon boat continued its trek through the narrow waterway and with each passing meter it inched closer and closer to the inevitable end.

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The bar cleanup had gone quickly. Some might even say it was almost magical how Shirou had been able to with a single glance tell if something was salvageable or broken beyond repair. If it was fixable, he had it back up and running in no time flat, and his charisma was scary. He'd immediately enlisted the help of the curious Roanapuar citizens who'd come to see the devastation and somehow he'd convinced them to grab a bin and help with the cleanup.

This may have had more to do with Bao's evil grin than with the white haired young man's pleas though.

Shirou had received a packet of money from Bao and was sent out to contact a local carpenter when he came across a little girl crying for her mother.

_She couldn't be any more than 10 years old_ thought Shirou.

He immediately walked over and knelt down beside the crying child that everyone else seemed to be ignoring.

No sooner had he knelt down to speak with her did he feel a slight shift in his back pocket. Sighing, he nonchalantly reached behind him and caught the wrist of the boy who'd been trying to pick pocket him. He brought the surprised young boy around but to his shock the girl immediately stopped crying, narrowed her eyes, and pulling a small knife out of her tattered dress slashed at Shirou wildly.

The white haired man yanked the boy to the ground and twisted to avoid the slash as the small girl fell off balance from her lunge. As she re adjusted Shirou swept her legs from under her and used his free hand to cradle her head as she fell.

The knife clattered to the ground and Shirou stepped on the blade to prevent anyone from grabbing it. The girl tried to get up but the boy was sent into her and they both stumbled backwards.

Shirou frowned. "What's going on here? Are you two really looking for your mother?"

The girl took on a look of disgust. She laughed maniacally. "What are you retarded? Obviously that was just a ploy to catch you off guard. We heard there was a sucker that had recently come to town and it's been awhile since we had an easy target."

The boy snarled at Shirou. "Obviously they forgot to mention you were a ninja."

The girl stuck her chin in the air defiantly. Despite this Shirou could see that she was shaking slightly. "S-so, get on with it!"

"No Ming!" cried out the boy with wide eyes. He glared at Shirou and bared his fangs as he stood protectively in front of the girl. "I won't let you lay a finger on her you mother f-"

He was interrupted as Ming shoved him out of the way. "Shut up, Gon! I can handle myself!" She stared at Shirou and did her best to control the slight tremor in her lip. "Forget him.. I'm the one you want right."

Shirou's eyes went wide in disbelief as he finally realized what she was talking about. "That's I'm not.."

She interrupted him with a sneer. "I'm not stupid you know.. I know what happens when I get caught... sorry mister but you're too late if you're looking for fresh meat." She shivered as her eyes momentarily shifted to the side before shaking her head and staring into Shirou's own golden orbs defiantly.

Shirou's eyes took on a cold look. He could feel the rage boiling in his blood. "I see." He remarked cooly. "In that case, it's best you don't get caught."

He turned and dropped the packet of money Bao had given him on the ground before turning and walking way. As he moved he used the toe of his shoe to slide the small knife back next to the packet. The girl blinked in surprise, but the boy rushed forward and grabbed both the pack and the knife and hurriedly pulled the girl along with him.

Ming, could only stare in confusion at the retreating back of the white haired man.

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><p>"Well that's it." Dutch remarked.<p>

The Lagoon boat slowly turned away from the massive waterfall that blocked any further movement forward and effectively sealed their fate.

He sighed. "There's no road ahead of us. The only option we have now is to turn around.. and when we do that. He'll be waiting for us."

Dutch adjusted his sunglasses as the sweat dripped down the back of his neck. "My gut tells me he put us here on purpose. They wanna finish us off face to face"

"So, the only question left is who wants to ring the gong."

"It aint something that happens every day, but once in a while you find them around. Wanna be vets who like to pretend they're cowboys."

Revy pushed off from her position propped on the wall of the cabin. "Hey Dutch, what about letting them run out of fuel?'

"Dutch shook his head. "Nah, these guys are from EO, they'll come finish the job before that happens."

Revy growled before sighing. "Well how bad's the ship? Can we at least keep her afloat if we do somehow make it outta this?"

Dutch nodded as he looked out over the observation area. "Yeah, so far she's looking to be holding up pretty good. I'm honestly more worried about the torpedoes." "If even a single shot hits them we'll all be flying to the moon."

Revy's left eye developed a small twitch. "That's what ya get for keeping em, dumb ass!"

Dutch shook his head and removed his sunglasses. "I always figured I'd end up using them for something."

Benny popped his head in through the doorway. "I know it's kinda a waste, but maybe we should just throw those overboard?'

Dutch rubbed his eyes and reached for the launcher levers. "Guess we have no choice then."

Revy rolled her eyes and adjusted her right shoulder holster. "What a waste." She remarked offhandedly.

Dutch replaced his sunglasses and pulled the detachment lever and the two torpedoes dropped into the water and quickly sunk.

Benny popped his neck a few times. "Well at least we won't get blown up by a single shot now, but I think now would probably be a good time to start praying for a miracle."

Revy narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "Praying huh? Yeah count me out on that one. If it's my time then might as well go out with a bang." She took one of her cutlass pistols out of her holster and cocked the hammer back before starting to point it at her own head.

Dutch quickly snatched the pistol from her hands and glared at her. "Pull yourself together Revy, we're not dead just yet. Never say die, that's the kinda girl I know. At the very least if we're going out let's do it with some fuckin honor."

Revy snarled at him. "You just don't get it do you? This is it, we're up against a gunship we got squat, even the anti tank rifle is a bust. What are we supposed to go fight a gunship with huh?!"

She stomped forwards and got in Dutch's face. "What you waiting on? A miracle? Hah newsflash Dutch, there aint no such thing as miracles! Nobody is gonna come flying in a magic carpet and kill the big bad gunship and save the day! "

She glared at Dutch and poked her finger into his chest with each word.

"There aint no fairytale endings." Poke.

"There aint no Miracles." Poke.

"And there sure as hell aint no such thing as heroes." Grab.

Dutch stared at Revy's hand. "If you don't wanna have to change your name to one hand I'd suggest you get it out of my face Two hands."

Benny ran in and got in between the two of them. "Ok, lets all calm down, there' no way this is gonna help anything."

Dutch chuckled humorlessly. "Fine, y'know what you're in a such a hurry to die, then let's all go meet the grim reaper together." With that he shifted the boat into high gear and charged back out to meet he gunship head on.

Benny's eyes widened. "W-wait, Dutch you're joking right?!"

Dutch sighed and leaned back. "Benny boy, it's been a pleasure sailing with you.. for what it's worth, sorry it had to end this way."

Benny fell to his butt and blinked in disbelief. "Then it's really… over?"

"Yeah." drawled Revy with downcast eyes. "It's over. That's how these stories end in the real world."

Benny could only look down at the floor and wait for the inevitable. Although it didn't seem worth much he did what all desperate men do when there's nowhere left to turn.

He prayed.

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Inside the cockpit of the gunship the captain licked his lips in anticipation. His assistant called his attention. "The radar's picked up something Captain, our target's on the move."

The grizzled captain laughed. "Hah, is that it? I accept your challenge."

He laughed out and narrowed his eyes cruelly. "Oh, they're planning on using that old wreck as a shield? Che, like that'll do em any good. Once they're clear we'll nail'em with a single shot."

He grinned "You're about to get fucked baby!"

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><p><strong>"My core is twisted in Madness." <strong>

From an unbelievable distance away outside of both combatants radar range a massive shockwave exploded out and a small red bolt of light blasted out from the epicenter. Five concentric rings of red light formed around the displaced air as the red bolt shot across the South Asian Ocean.

The gun ship hovered at attack altitude and waited as the Lagoon came barreling down the straight on a suicide course.

The captain hovered his finger over the red button on his joystick and grinned with excitement.

Suddenly his assistant Storm remarked on something peculiar. "Sir, there's something heading straight for us at 3 o clock."

The captain never had time to turn. The red bullet slammed into the gunship and detonated on impact.

The gunship exploded into a giant fireball and most of the vehicle and all of its inhabitants were vaporized under the sheer pressure of the detonation. The fireball exploded outwards creating a blinding flash just as the Lagoon boat passed by the shipwreck blocking them from seeing what caused the destruction.

As they passed by they could only see a few small pieces of the gunship falling into the Ocean. The explosion sent a massive wave of water that nearly capsized the boat but the fact that they were going at full speed allowed them to crash through the crest of the wave with relatively little damage.

As they sped on past the crew could only stare in awe and disbelief as the gunship was completely gone. With the small parts now beneath the waves, not a single trace of it remained.

Revy's jaw hung open and threatened to unhinge. Benny started laughing hysterically and Dutch just shook his head in amazement.

Far away on the head of a defamed Buddhist Statue a miracle that didn't exist smiled.

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><p>Bao was furious. No scratch that, he was beyond furious. "What do you mean you got mugged!?" I sent you out because out of all the people here you seemed to be the most capable.. who the hell mugged you? Hotel Moscow!?"<p>

Shirou sighed sheepishly. "I'm sorry to be honest I really didn't get a chance to see them very well. "I was caught by surprise."

Bao's eye twitched uncontrollably. "What the hell? I thought you said you were a hero? What kind of hero gets mugged?!"

Shirou sighed. "I understand, I have no excuse for losing your money Bao, so I'll make it up to you. I actually have some carpentry skills of my own, and I have experience working in a bar. I will gladly work for you till I pay off the debt if that's acceptable?"

Bao considered this for a moment. _Hmmm, this guy can handle himself pretty well, and he's a good worker, not to mention he can actually listen and follow directions, as long as I don't send him out with any more important items. This could work.._

Bao cleared his throat. "Ahem, ok, I've considered it, and I've decided to be lenient. I don't usually do this, but I'll give you one chance. You'll work here for no pay until you've paid back every cent hero."

Shirou nodded. "Of course, thank you for this opportunity, I won't let you down." He said confidently.

Bao nodded. "All right then, first things first, I want the walls fixed up by morning. "You can sleep when you finish and not a wink until!"

Shirou nodded and set off to work.

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><p>It was many hours later in the dead of night that a young Asian man walked out into the Roanapaur night. He chuckled to himself as he palmed the keys to his car. Suddenly a black sedan pulled up alongside him.<p>

The window rolled down and a handsome Chinese man motioned form him to get in. He quickly climbed into the front seat and pulled out a small needle. "Care for a fix?" he asked casually.

The Chinese gentleman raised an eyebrow. "Business first, Low. Regarding the recent shipment.."

"Yeah yeah it's all taken care of." remarked the scruffy Low.

His eyes suddenly bugged out as a shimmering silver blade easily pierced through the upholstery of the driver's seat and shot out the chest of the Chinese driver. The man feeble reached for his gun as Low did the same but halted when in a swift flash the man's head was separated from his shoulder.

The spray of blood coated the windshield and dashboard and Low dropped his own weapon immediately and tried to get out of the car but another blade shot out of the darkened backseat and prevented his escape.

Slowly from the darkness a head emerged. It was completely covered by a black hood. Dark sunglasses tinted the figures eyes. A red shroud cold be seen wrapped around his shoulders and black body armor of some sort covered his muscled chest.

"I understand you and your boss have been engaging in child pornography and trafficking."

The figure leaned closer to the frightened Low. "This will no longer be allowed." "Should you continue to engage in this enterprise, there will be dire consequences?"

Low again tried to escape the car, but a sword shot through the hand reaching for the door handle pinning him to the dashboard.

The dark figure continued. "You are still alive because I require a messenger. You will relay this message to yours and every other crime boss in this city. After which I will have no further use for you."

The imposing hooded figured leaned closer to the pinned man. "If I were you, I would sincerely hope that we do not meet again."

With that, he yanked the knife from the hand of the sniveling man and opened the door. Low fell out and began crawling away holding his bleeding hand to his chest.

Low nearly hyperventilated as he scrambled to his feet. "W-who the hell are you?!"

The figure tilted its head before leaving to vanish into a dark alleyway. "You may call me, the Guardian."

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><p>OK, that's the second chapter of Fate Lagoon. Feel free to comment and let me know what you thought and if you have any ideas or requests for the direction of the fic. Any beta readers that are interested in this story feel free to let me know. As of now, my beta is Mircosoft Word Auto spell lol.<p>

Please read and review.


	3. Whispers in the Dark

Fate Lagoon

Summary:

Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.

AN: Alright so a good number of reviews but a lot of them asking the same thing so I'll address it broadly.

First off:

As you will see in this chapter the whole knowing about the chopper and saving the crew thing was thought out and set in place during chapter one. A reason for it will be given in this chapter.

Next

People hate the name the Guardian. Well, it's kinda corny, but hat's the point. Shirou's whole hero of justice ideal is corny. It's especially so in the ultra-serious world of BL. But that's what makes it work. For now, I'm sticking with it, but I appreciate your input. Perhaps it'll change in the future if people can convince Shirou to use something else.

A lot of people are asking and making conjectures about Shirous back story. I have been setting it up and I was going to slowly reveal things in story, but to alleviate misconceptions I'll just come out and say it.

Firstly, this is AU. But basically this is the original Archer EMYA Shirou who is right at the end of his life. He is not yet Archer and has only recently been confronted by Alaya after failing to save the 100 people.

So Fate route, Saber as servant; found by Kiritsugu, and has Avalon in his body still.

BUT there's a VERY big AU twist in this. I guarantee it's the first of its kind in a fate fic.

This Shirou has not yet been fully betrayed by his ideal. This one still:

_"__Thinks it would be great if he could keep saving people even after his death.."_

So he's still somewhat cheerful about his situation. BUT he's also known nothing but betrayal. Everyone he's ever loved has turned their back on him. This one is not

_ "__Waiting for her arrival on a hill of swords.." _

He's moved on, single mindedly choosing to pursue his ideal. He has become jaded by other people and he's a bit more sarcastic, and snarky as we see the ghosts of what will one day become Archer, but, he still inherently believes that saving people isn't wrong.

So if Shinji asks him to clean the archery dojo for him, though he knows he's being taken advantage of, he's still willing to do so.

Disclaimer: I do not own the two properties Fate and Black Lagoon. They are the property of Kinoko Nasu and Rei Hiroe respectively. This is a non profit fanfiction done for the sake of improving my storytelling and expanding my skillsets.

Key:

_Flash backs, thoughts, omniscient perspective_

**_Emphasized points_**

Normal speech

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><p>Chapter 3: Whispers in the Dark<p>

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_He reaches that place. _

_He had friends and a lover._

_He lost all of them and he was cornered by the ideal he relentlessly pursued. _

_He had no place to go._

_He knew of his fate, but he still acted like he tried to perform "miracles" using his fate as a support. _

_.. But that came to an end._

_The place he reaches at the end is a hill of swords._

_His battle ends on the hill amongst the rusted ownerless steel. _

_..Still alone._

_But he smiles in satisfaction as he let's go of his sword, as if saying there's nothing to regret if he was able to save everyone that came into his sight. _

_On that hill of steel though the image could be seen in every blade.._

_He never once looked at his reflection. _

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><p><em>The sky was dark. <em>

_Gloomy clouds seemed to roll in with the afternoon and promised a much needed shower for the land. Shirou frowned as he wiped some sweat from his brow. He wouldn't be able to stop working when the rain came in as he was tasked with repairing a dam that had broken in the flood last week. _

_Shirou pulled another piece of rotten lumber from the stack and positioned it in place before turning to pick up his hammer. He sighed as he saw that it was missing. _

_In this small village in Somalia, tools like that were somewhat hard to come by. His own tool set had quickly been poached by the local craftsmen as well as thieving children. Now, it seems, they had finally claimed his last hammer. _

_As he was contemplating how to proceed he felt a small drop of water tap him on his exposed neck. He had a moderate sun burn so the sensation stung a bit, but it was quickly forgotten as the drops began to fall more frequently. _

_Suddenly a dark hand appeared in front of him holding a small brown leather bag. _

_Shirou turned to see the tanned arm and followed it up to see it disappear into the tattered sleeves of a white and grey robe. It was a simple design and it seemed to be quite worn. _

_Shirou moved his eyes up and focused on the slightly bearded face of the man. He wasn't shaved but the small beard was still manageable and his dark black hair fell down to just above his shoulders. The man was broad shouldered and had a wide almost square jaw and a large nose. _

_He gave a hearty laugh and lightly dropped off the bag at Shirou's feet. "Ah Emiya-san, I've been looking for you. I called out to you many times already, but I don't think you heard me." _

_Shirou blinked in surprise. "You speak Japanese?" He inquired with amazement. _

_The man shrugged and grinned showing his tan teeth. They weren't the white one would expect from someone with a modern dental care but they were well-kept for the region they were in. "Among others, I try to keep the lines of communication open with as many people as possible."_

_The man motioned to the bag at the ground. "I brought some tools to help out. This dam seems to be pretty unlucky; this is the fourth time it's had to be repaired," _

_Shirou nodded as the sky seemed to literally fall at that moment. The rain began to descend hammering into the already weakened pile of scrap lumber and began mixing with the ground around them making mud and further complicating their task. _

_The man knelt down to unzip the bag and motioned to Shirous framework. "You placed the crossbeam at a bad angle there. Also, that board there should be cut and fitted to match the angle of the outside frame."_

_Shirou could only barely hear him over the clap of thunder and pouring rain that resounded from the sky. _

_He decided to show off his own linguistic skills. "Ah, are you a craftsman Mr? .." Shirou responded in English. _

_The man nodded as he pulled out a tape measure and a small hand saw. "Yahshu, and yes, my step father was a carpenter by trade. I've also traveled around a bit so I've picked up some pretty useful skillsets." _

_"__It's not bad work." He commented idly as he began to saw the rotten lumber Shirou had nailed up previously. "It's just that you have to understand that when you're dealing with less than five star standard materials you have to change some things from the manuals." _

_Shirou nodded as he watched the tall man work and he made sure to take note of the information the man was constantly commenting on. _

_It took less than 20 minutes to complete the task that Shirou had been struggling with for over 2 hours. As they began to pack up Shirou tilted his head to the side and let the water droplets stuck to his white hair fall off the tips of his spiked locks. "I don't mean to be rude, and I certainly appreciate the help,. Yahshu-san but why did you come here to help me? I don't recall Mulak saying he was going to send anyone to assist me.' _

_The man finished zipping up the bag and ran a calloused hand through his unruly mop of black hair. "Does someone really need a reason to help someone else? I saw you out here and I decided to help out. That's all." _

_Shirou blinked a few times and nodded. "I see that's true, thank you then." He gave a small bow. _

_The man smiled and tossed Shirou the bag. As he turned around to walk off he tilted his head towards the white haired man. "It's not a problem, why don't you hold onto that for me for a bit, I think you could make better use of it than me. I'll come pick it up when the time comes that I need it."_

_Shirou was about to protest, but then he considered his situation. He was tool less and he still had dozens of projects left to do here before moving on. He nodded graciously and the man waved to him as he walked off into the pouring rain. _

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><p>Shirou awoke to the sound of a bird calling out death threats and racial slurs. He blinked the dust from his eyes and tilted his head towards the window of the small shack he was staying in. He saw the parrot sitting perched on a branch sitting over an old man who was obviously swindling two gullible gang members in a game of dice.<p>

He glanced over to see a small brown bag poking out of his red back pack and smiled warmly. The memory of that day was one of the few happy ones he'd been able to acquire in his tumultuous life.

"Well, time to get up and see what Bao needs today." he remarked cheerfully.

Shirou got dressed in his usual black collared shirt and blue jeans. His worn red sneakers fit a bit more snugly as they were still wet and swollen from yesterday's bout of improvisational plumbing. He could feel his socks beginning to get damp but thanks to a certain conceptual sheathe embedded within him he would thankfully, likely avoid a cold.

Deciding to forego breakfast, he shouldered his red backpack and opened his door and blinked as a bleeding man staggered across his vision with a group of women running to catch up with him.

One of the women, a rather emaciated middle aged red head, grabbed the man by the top of his hair and threw him into Shirou's window. The white haired man's right eye twitched as his cheerful grin remained plastered on his face.

The woman continued to shout curses in a language Shirou couldn't understand and slammed the man into the window again causing a spider web of cracks to emerge.

"Alright." Shirou said calmly stepping up to group. After making sure his door was locked he turned to the man and nodded to him. He continued in English. "I don't know what's going on here but whatever this man has done, I'll take care of his tab. So please stop beating him."

One of the other woman a petite Asian woman in 6 inch heels walked over to Shirou and appraised him. She sneered and dismissively rolled her eyes to the man on the ground. "Is that so? This scum a friend of yours? Eh?"

Her own English was barely comprehensible, but Shirou just met her gaze with his own.

"Fine." She stated haughtily. "You owe us 1500 USD, you got till tomorrow to pay up or next time we're gonna show up with the leg breaka's."

With that the woman turned around and walked back into the market streets and the other women followed suit.

Shirou ran a tanned hand through his hair and offered his other to the bleeding man. "Hey, are you alright?"

The man glared up at him and smacked his hand away. "Piss off wanker!" he called out staggering slightly as he readjusted his balance.

The man eyed Shirou measuringly then he spat on the doormat in front of Shirou's apartment entrance.

The inconsiderate British man then walked away without another word of thanks or otherwise.

Shirou's cheerful smile finally began to crack and the twitch in his eye increased. "What a lovely city." he muttered under his breath and shook his head before walking off in the direction of the Yellow Flag.

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The day was not going well. The small bar was having a boom of business as a local Italian boss was conducting business and using a set of tables in the back. Shirou was hurriedly rushing between tables and taking orders as well as running out and restocking on various items.

To further complicate things, the ice machine had broken and he had to get replacement bags from the outdoor shed cooler every 15 minutes. After a quick view with structural Analysis he determined that the ice machine had gone to meet its maker and was beyond his ability to help.

He would have had a moment of silence to remember the valiant piece of equipment if he hadn't been swamped with at least 5 tasks at any given time.

Bao was a slave driver, and Shirou quickly found that workers rights did not exist in Roanapur. He wasn't expecting any, seeing as how he was already working for free, but now he had to somehow come up with an extra 2,000 for his guests this morning, and the interest they would no doubt be demanding for having to wait a whole extra 24 hours.

Shirou briefly considered some graveyard shift cargo unloading work. It wouldn't pay nearly enough, but at least it would net him some income. In the weeks he's been here he'd noticed very quickly that money ran everything here. In this city money seemed to be everyone's god. He had yet to see a single red cross or volunteer center in the entire city.

To do the things he was hoping to accomplish, he would need some form of actual employment.

Of course, the cargo unloading had one major pitfall.

If he took it, his work here at the bar and the extra work at night would leave no time for sleep. He'd gone without sleep for a few weeks before in some of his more Black Sector work in his travels, but eventually even he started to deteriorate mentally without rest.

As Evening rolled in Shirou was pulled from his musing by the jingle of the door opening and a muttered curse from Bao.

"Ah, shit, not them again.. that's just great." The Asian man grumbled before leaning over the bar counter and turning to his newest helper, he growled at him conspiratorially.

"Hey, Emiya.. Make sure Two Hands doesn't wreck the place tonight."

Shirou blinked in confusion. "Huh?" He stated with wide eyes. "That woman.. is rather uncontrollable.. How exactly do you propose I prevent her from doing anything? "

Bao rolled his eyes before turning to go grab the bottle of Rum that Revy would inevitably demand upon reaching the counter. "I dunno.. just.. like, seduce her or something. Challenge her to a drinking contest and put her under the table, or invite her to use you as target practice I don't care! Just make sure her guns stay pointed away from my bar!"

Shirou chuckled dryly. "I really don't think I'm her type." The tanned man finished wiping down the table he was at and neatly folded the dirty cloth rag into a square. "I wasn't aware I was a male host at this establishment. Does this mean I'll be getting a raise and a better uniform?'

Bao waved him off dismissively. "Yeah sure, I'll up your pay from nothing to jack shit and I'll throw in a few bullet holes to go with that fancy black shirt you like so much. "

Bao poured the rum mix into a glass as he spoke over his shoulder. "Your job is whatever I say it is, now get out there and fix that lopsided table before I put you outside as a sign shaker with a chicken suit on."

Shirou chuckled as he moved to grab the small sanitizer bucket on the counter. "Hmm, yeah I'll pass on that one."

Suddenly a gloved fist slammed onto the counter and a brunette Asian woman grinned maniacally. "Hey, Bao, get me the strongest Rum ya got, and make it quick I got all night to put em away!"

Within seconds a glass slid down the counter to her. The woman blinked a few times before smirking. "Well, not bad, looks like you're finally learning how to serve your customers."

Shirou went to move past her with the bucket of sanitizer and a clean rag when her green fingerless gloved hand landed on his shoulder. "Hey, Emiya c'mere I wanted to talk at ya for a bit."

Shirou raised an eye brow and took a seat on the stool putting down his cleaning supplies.

Revy continued scratching her head. "So the thing is I know it was kinda a dick move to dump you off here with those EO goons still wrecking the place. But honestly, I'm surprised to see you're still alive. Though becoming Bao's little whipping boy does kinda suit ya."

She brought her glass up and took a hard shot. "But, anyway yeah the thing is I uh, sorta forgot I had this on me.. I figured since we drug you out here and dumped you and all I could let you have it back."

She pulled out a small chain with a red gem attached to it.

Shirou grinned roguishly. "I see, so you were unable to pawn it huh?"

Revy twitched and glanced off to the side miming as if hit by an arrow.

"Not bad Jap." A deep voice called out from his left. A Large black man in sunglasses came into his view and pulled up a stool beside him. "He's got you pegged already Two Hands, the man's perceptive."

"W-whatever, do you want it back or not?" she growled out.

Shirou regarded the necklace and gem pensively.

_'__Hmm, well it's certainly no surprise she couldn't pawn it due to the localized ward which induces a feeling of unease around it.. Of course, I've been using the tracking runes to keep tabs on her and without them I probably wouldn't have been able to take out that chopper.._

_On the other hand, I probably should take it back before she decides to do something crazy like throw it in the ocean..'_

Shirou smiled and took it from her hands with a light bow. "Thank you Revy-san."

Dutch tilted his head as he watched Shirou put it back around his neck. "You really like that piece of junk? Y'know it's fake right? She couldn't even find the sleaziest, cheapest dealer to take it.. You're probably better off tossing it in the sea It kinda gives off a bad luck vibe if you ask me."

Shirou smiled softly as the image of a raven haired woman flittered across his vision.

Only for a moment, just as her presence had been in his life, fleeting, but meaningful; but in the end he had made his choice, and she, like the others around him had been unable to walk the path he marched.

"It holds personal meaning to me." Shirou said resolutely.

Revy snorted, "What is that a gift from your first girlfriend? Where'd she get it, a vending machine?"

Shirou just smiled pleasantly. "Well , thanks for returning it, I'm glad you had a change of heart. If you'll excuse me."

But before he could move Revy's hand grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. "Hold up, I aint done yet." She remarked.

Taking a final swig of her drink she slammed the empty glass down and called for another.

"Here, I was at the market and I thought this would suit you somehow, so be grateful." She pulled out a brightly colored Hawaiian Shirt on a plastic hanger from the brown paper bag at her side.

Shirou blinked as he appraised the rather gaudy shirt. "Eh, well, erm thanks, I really appreciate your eh consideration."

Revy closed her eyes and smirked. "Yeah I know, I was in a good mood after blowing up that punk Luak I was feeling generous, and since we bailed on ya, I figured with this we're square."

Shirou chuckled as he folded up the shirt under his armpit. "Sure, works for me."

Benny finally made his presence known pulling up a stool beside Dutch. "Wow, it doesn't take much to satisfy you huh? You get kidnapped, threatened and left for dead and all it takes to compensate you is a fake ruby necklace, and a cheap FleaMarket shirt."

Shirou pushed away from the counter and grabbed his cleaning supplies. "I try not to be too materialistic. I value people's intentions and effort far more than their net worth."

Dutch raised an eyebrow. "That's a sad way to live jap, especially out here. Sad to say you won't last long in this world with that attitude."

Shirou shrugged as he walked off. "Well, you wouldn't be the first to say that."

Even though Shirou had left to fix and clean the table on the other side of the bar. He lightly reinforced his ears so he could hear the Lagoon Company's discussion from his position on the other side.

Benny ran a hand through his hair. "But, honestly Dutch, can we really afford to be out here partying and taking it easy? It's not exactly stable out there now.."

Revy snorted. "Oh, come on Benny, what's wrong? You scared Batman's gonna come crashing through the ceiling to punish us and send us to Arkham?"

She pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "What kinda stupid name is "The Guardian" anyway . She exclaimed emphasizing the title with finger quotes. "It sounds like a bad newspaper."

Dutch placed his hands on the counter and narrowed his eyes. "Well, that bad newspaper has just completely destroyed two of the mid level cartels and he's waging a war on child trafficking."

"I'll admit at first I thought this guy was just some merc who'd gone postal and read one too many comic books, but Even the Chinese and Taiwanese are gunning for him and he's still operating."

Dutch signed wearily. "He might be a delusional suicidal idealist, but he's dangerous."

Revy growled. "Come on, the guy runs around in red and black tights and he uses swords for shit sakes. It's only a matter of time before somebody just puts the pussy out of his misery."

But y'know." Dutch remarked staring into his glass. "A part of me is kinda rooting for him.. Back when I was a kid I kinda wanted to be super hero and save the world.. to think someone's actually trying to do it.. and in this place no less."

Revy slumped in her stool and twisted her booted ankles around the crossbar. "Please, it aint admirable, and he's not a friggin superhero. He's a nutcase and he's gonna end up dead in a ditch with nothing to show for it. Even if he was some kinda wannabe hero, there's nothing left to save in this town. It's rotten to the core."

Dutch nodded. "Aint that the truth."

Bao interrupted the conversation by setting down a bottle between them. "Here, just take the bottle and save me the trouble of mixing. You seem to like it pure anyway."

Revy's eyes widened in glee and she quickly snatched it up and began chugging it.

Shirou finished remounting the table base and wiped down the grimy metal with his rag. He contemplated the discussion the Lagoon Company had been having and he frowned.

Before he could say anything however, the sudden crash of a chair falling was heard. Shirou sighed as a large blonde Caucasian man stood up from his table with a sneer. "You all talking about that little wanna be hero?!"

He licked his lips and narrowed his cold blue eyes. "That won't be a problem much longer trust me.. We're taking care of that little nuisance tonight."

Dutch raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and how are you planning to do that? The Chinese and the Taiwan groups have been hunting him for nearly two weeks and they haven't managed to do much more than get picked off and lose numbers."

The blonde laughed. 'That's cuz those chinks aint shit. They're so weak and puny that a little punk in pajamas can give em the run around. But we're not like that."

He smirked arrogantly. "See, we got a plan, this Guardian chump's predictable. He's got a little orphanage program going on the outskirts of the port. He's keeping all the little brat's he's found there and trying to setup some sesame street school or something, but we got a source inside already. "

He sat down on a stool near Revy and looked down at her with lidded eyes. "We're gonna take out his little shack, and when we do it'll bring the bleeding heart running,. Running right into the trap."

He pulled out a cigar and motioned for a light. "We get the brats back to the suppliers, and we claim the reward for taking out the nutcase.. So the only questions is.. do you want in?"

Revy's eyebrow raised slightly and she reached into her daisy duke denim shorts and pulled out a small lighter. "What exactly, are you looking for? Honestly, Shooting up a superhero kinda sounds fun. Details?"

The man lit up and made an incredulous sound. "Please, like we need any help taking'em out from a woman or a washed up vet. What we are in need of is a transport. Once we grab the little brats he's got holed up there we'll need to take'em back to the a holding area for the various rings to pick em up. "

Revy narrowed her eyes and snapped the lighter shut before stuffing it back in her back pocket.. "Oh, what's that? You think a woman can't handle the job? How about this woman paints the counter with your brains and takes the job for herself?"

At this the sound of several weapons being drawn from holsters echoed around the group.

Revy sighed and raised her hands in the air with an annoyed look. Dutch put his glass down and titled his head. "So, you're looking for a transporter to smuggle a group of kids to a safehouse for pickup?"

The blonde man took a drag and exhaled. "Yeah, that's the gist of it. The location aint that far and they already got people to takem off your hands. "

Dutch stroked his goatee. "Hmm, how much?"

Benny stared horrified at Dutch. " Dutch you can't be serious! These are child traffickers?!"

Revy rolled her eyes and lowered her hands so they were cradling her head. "You got any better jobs Benny? We haven't had a decent job since that Asahi fiasco. What's one more babysitting job if it's gonna pay out?"

Dutch silently regarded the blonde man.

The gangster finished off his cigar and threw the remains on the bar floor. "For transport you get 25,000. They'll have it waiting for you once you reach the drop point."

Dutch pushed his shades up with two fingers. "Well, that's mighty generous; I think we can work something out with that."

The man placed a folded piece of paper down on the bar counter and then slid it over to Revy. He let his fingertips lightly run up across her arm, along her jawline, and through her silky brown hair before pulling away. "As for you, you let me know if you wanna find out what a real man feels like."

The blonde man smirked and nodded. He made a signal and the guns surrounding them were pulled back and reholstered. He then turned around and walked along with his group.

Bao slammed his hand into the counter. "Hey, wait, you still owe me for the drinks!"

His response was one of the men pulling out a tech nine and carelessly spraying the ceiling lights as they left.

Bao ducked for cover behind his counter and Revy sat in her stool frozen stiff.

"Keep the change." Was heard before the group laughed as the door closed behind them.

Bao leapt back to his feet in fury. "Bastards!" he shouted enraged.

Dutch narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Alright, let's go."

Revy's eye was twitching almost uncontrollably. Her teeth were clenched together so hard they looked like they might crack at any moment.

She slid off the stool and unclenched her fist showing a deep indent in the palm of her cloth glove.

Benny just stared at the two in confusion before following along out the door of the bar. They ignored Bao's indignant roar to pay their tab.

Bao slammed his hand on ther counter and looked around. "Emiya! Get over here.. huh? Emiya? Damn it where'd he get to?"

The white haired man was nowhere to be seen, his cleaning supplies and a crumpled Hawaiian shirt lay discarded near the table he'd ben fixing.

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><p>"I misjudged them." Shirou glared at the rapidly darkening night sky. He was perched on a dilapidated billboard. In his ear was a small black earpiece he'd purchased from a black market dealer his first week there.<p>

As his target began to move the air around his right hand began to shimmer.

"Trace on."

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><p>The Lagoon's car sped through the night street. Benny stared uncertainly at Dutch as the other man drove the car down the main road to the outskirts.<p>

Benny decided to speak up. "Hey, Dutch are we really gonna be part of this? I mean.. breaking the rules is one thing but these are just kids.."

Dutch frowned as the night sky suddenly lit up and a few moments later the boom of thunder announced the torrent of rain that began to fall.

He turned on the wipers and shook his head. "This situation isn't what it seems, Those Italian bastards never play by the books. 25,000 for a transport job with a small travel distance? They're setting us up for something."

Revy roared in fury. "That disgusting pig.. I'll slit his throat and break every bone in his body! Who the hell does he think he is?!"

Dutch narrowed his eyes as he turned the wipers to maximum. "Honestly, Benny I'm a bit disappointed in you. Did you really think I was going to get involved with something as shady as this? Even I have standards."

Dutch stopped at a light and glanced at the paper he'd been given again. "We really weren't being given a choice there. You saw how they had us surrounded. If we'd refused do you honestly think they would have just walked out and left us alone? After telling us that much?"

Benny sighed. "I guess not, but it's not like they didn't just announce it to the whole bar."

Dutch nodded as he turned onto a dirt road. "Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. A job like that is usually given in a more private setting. That's the first clue that something fishy was going on. Either way no matter how you look at it this just doesn't fly."

Revy grit her teeth and stared out with window as the rain came down in sheets. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

Dutch let a smirk cross his features. "Well, Seeing as how you seem to have a grievance with our Itailan friend to resolve and we obviously can't afford to let them complete their job and get the Trafficking rings involved.. I'd say our best bet is to lend our resident superhero a hand and make sure this plan of theirs doesn't go off as smoothly as they're expecting it to."

Che, Revy snorted. "We're gonna cover Batman's ass. This is ridiculous."

Dutch shook his head. "Not exactly, we're gonna cover our own ass. It just so happens that the bullseye lines up with him as well. Call it a intersecting interest."

With that, the car sped on down the dirt road towards the location of the pickup point.

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><p>Shirou landed silently on another branch. He had purposefully chosen this location due to its position. The gangsters would have to go through the forest in order to reach the safe house and even then it had several wards and a bounded field set up over it.<p>

Unfortunately, despite Rin and Luvia's best attempts, he was not a good magus He was however, a decent magic user. Against such mundane and simplistic opponents, he would be very problematic.

It was unfortunate that he had not been able to learn of their plan with more time, now he had time to activate only the pre set traps and measures he had set up previously.

He watched carefully, as a set of cars appeared through the sheet of rain. Their bright headlights cut through the falling wall of water and provided an excellent target for him. As they passed over a bridge on the way to the forest he watched as the road spike strip destroyed their tires. The first few cars halted as the rest began to pull back.

Before they could get far, Shirou detonated an improvised explosive and took out the support for one side of the bridge dropping several of the cars into small gorge. Before anything could be done Shirou fired a D rank traced Broken Phantasm into the gas tank of a large van and the entire gorge exploded sending metal and body parts flying.

The first two cars' occupants left their vehicles and entered the forest with curses and shouts of challenge.

Shirou slowly began to pick them off. The mobsters were ill equipped for guerilla warfare in the dense forest and they were further ensnared by the subtle disorienting effect of the field surrounding the area.

Shirou dropped behind a group of men armed with sub machine guns and traced a compound multishot bow. He lined his targets up matching their pace before firing and severing their spinal cords.

A second group heard their strangled cries and arrived on scene to help but found their comrades lying on the ground unable to move or dead. As they huddled together in a circle with their guns pointing frantically at the trees illuminated by lightning and obscured by rain, they did not notice the dark hooded figure that stood slightly crouched in the center of them slowly rising up.

The first sign of his presence was a strangled cry to left as the panicked men turned their guns on each other trying to find the source. Blood sprayed into the air as a blade sliced through flesh and another man dropped. The panicked gangsters began firing at random and frantically swinging their weapons around to kill the elusive shadow.

This resulted in friendly fire killing most of them. Shirou carefully stayed in their blindspots or cut them down before they could react until only a few remained and their ammo had been spent.

He quickly cut them down just as he was finally discovered and a set of lights shined on him as automatic fired ripped through the air.

Shirou smirked. _This should be interesting.._ he thought.

"My body is made of swords." He quickly stated.

Bullets from every direction ripped into him, and.. promptly bounced off as the sound of lead hitting solid steel pinged throughout the area. The hooded figure slowly walked forward as a steady stream of bullets continued to pelt him.

Small sparks shot off of him and he made a slight wincing expression. The swords he had created underneath his skin were able to withstand gunfire of this level but his skin still broke and cracked around the impact points. Luckily his armor and shroud held true and naturally regenerated and the dark hood cast a deep shadow over his face that concealed his pained expressions.

He needed to appear invulnerable. This was part of his plan for tonight. If he could appear to them as bulletproof it would only increase his aura of mystique and would cause further fear and superstition to surround him. This was necessary to operate the way he wished.

'W-what the hell.. is he?!" shouted a terrified gangster.

You've gotta be shitting me.. this is impossible.. he's some sort of monster.." Another shakily commented.

Shirou walked forward carefully and methodically cutting down everyone in this way. It didn't take long for them to break formation and begin running away. He applied a quick burst of speed using a miniature prana burst to appear in front of the man furthest ahead in retreat.

Quickly spinning he sliced through beheading him, and before the headless body fell he'd cut down bisecting the next man running through the clearing.

By now the retreating group saw that he had somehow appeared in their path and they turned around to run the way they'd just come from, but Shirou traced a simple bow and arrow. He applied a small layer of alteration to it enhancing its sharpness, length, and piercing ability before taking aim.

Releasing the taught bow string Shirou knew that it would hit before the arrow left. Thus, the bow dissolved into particles only moment after the arrow took flight. The vibrating bowstring dissolved into small glowing blue particles and the hooded man leapt into a tree to see the results he already knew he would find.

All 4 of the men were pinned to a tree by the throat one after other by the abnormally long arrow.

Only one remained staggering and tripping through the wet forest ground. The rain continued to pour down as Shirou leapt from the tree branch to land directly behind the man causing him to slip and fall onto a wet and rotting tree limb.

He hysterically pulled out his pistol and leveled the shaking weapon at Shirou.

The hooded figure merely observed him from underneath his hood. The enhancement on the hood prevented anyone from seeing anything but darkness from his nose up. His upper face was not visible even where the light illuminated it.

Shirou narrowed his eyes. _It's time for the coup de grat.. _he thought.

The man fired and Shirou steeled himself as bullets bounced off his breastplate and ricocheted into the darkness.

Shirou moved forwards and the man's eyes grew wider and wider in disbelief and horror.

Finally he leveled his gun point blank and fired directly into Shirou's head hitting him dead center between the eyes. Using alteration and reinforcement Shirou prevented the skin from breaking and the bullet sparked off his head.

The man continued trying to fire but the only reward he received for his fingers effort was a clicking sound to inform him he was out of ammo.

Shirou stepped up next to him and roughly snatched the spent handgun from thug. With a grunt of effort he twisted the slide, barrel, and receiver into an unusable mess and casually dropped the ruined weapon.

"I want you to go back and tell your boss that the days of your ruling through fear and oppression are over. I will not stand by and watch atrocity and injustice. Tell him that a hero of justice is making a stand."

The hooded man stared into the terrified eyes of the Italian mobster. "If no one else is willing, I will become a symbol to restore hope to those who have none."

The Hooded man lifted his blade still dripping with blood. "Leave, now before I change my mind."

The man began scrambling backwards unable to take his eyes off of the terrifying specter in front of him and then a blast of lightning illuminated the clearing and blinded him momentarily. When he looked back up the blade wielding vigilante was gone.

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"Shit, what the hell is going on?" muttered the blonde Italian Mob boss. "Where are Vinny and Michael at?" The two men at his side looked around frantically as they tried to locate their enemy.

The pouring rain slammed down into the 3 men with long black coats and silenced pistols. They continued moving through the forest as the water began to pool at their feat making the terrain muddy and difficult for them to move in their expensive leather shoes.

Suddenly a muffled scream to the left caused the boss and his guard to turn and see that their comrade was now hanging with a wicked looking leather whip noosed around his neck and hanging from a tree branch several feet of the ground.

As he struggled to free himself the two men moved in to help but a blade exploded out the front of the boss's other guard from the back.

The man collapsed to the ground as the blade impaling him dissolved into particles of blue light and the boss took off running for the entrance to the forest firing his silenced pistol at random.

The hooded figure prepared to go after him when radio from his earpiece informed of a particular piece of information. Shirou looked at the man running desperately tripping and crawling for the entrance. He then turned and moved deeper into the forest to check on and make sure his safe house was still secure and the children were alright.

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><p>"That bastard, pajama wearing freak.. what the hell is he?!" the blonde haired man's once immaculate green suit was now muddy and caked with blood and dirt. He struggled to make it through the winding path and finally caught sight of his headlights still shining in the rain.<p>

He bolted for his car and tossed his spent pistol on the ground and continued moving.

"This isn't over you freak, I'll be back with the whole group, then we'll see how your little butter knife matches up." he grumbled furiously.

Finally the blonde man burst free from the forest entrance and stumbled into the hood of his bright blue car breathing heavily.

He lifted his head to went to push off the hood to get in when he noticed a strange belt buckle in the shape of an x blocking his view of the windshield.

He looked up and noticed to his horror his face was directly in front of the extended barrel of a handgun.

His peripheral vision saw the slightly blurry form of a petite Asian brunette sitting on top of his cab with her booted feet planted firmly on his hood.

Revy slowly raised her head as the rain poured down. Her slick brown bangs plastered to her cheeks and her smile widened dementedly. The extended barrel of her Cutlas pistol stood unflinching and steady as the rain fell around it.

"Hi there." She cooed. "I came to find out what a real man sounds like when he dies."

She tilted her head and smirked letting her wet lips curl around her teeth. "I bet he squeals like a piggy."

A trigger was pulled, a hammer fell, primer ignited, and a pig squealed.

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><p>Bao grumbled in annoyance. "So let me get this straight, you got kidnapped again?"<p>

Shirou clapped his hands together in apology. 'Well, you see these women and I had a misunderstanding and they demanded I pay them for services that I had not received, but as you know I'm not really making any money here so.. the gentlemen they brought and I had to eh.. come to an understanding.

Baor raised an eyebrow. "You got kidnapped by hookers?"

Shirou glanced off to the side and scratched his head. "Eh, I'm sure they'd prefer to be referred to as escorts.. but I shouldn't have any more problems with them. They appear to have been tied to that Italian group that was attacked a few nights ago and they've suddenly backed off and gone underground it seems..

Shirou stared off into space for a moment wistfully. "Honestly, this Gaurdian fellow is quite the example. I wish I could make a difference like that."

Bao narrowed his eyes as he watched his employee fawn over the nutcase vigilante. Truthfully, he had originally thought Shirou WAS the Guardian, obviously the white haired man was a skilled soldier, and back when the vigilante of Roanapaur was still considered a rogue merc it seemed plausible.

But now, everything had changed. The whispers in the darkest corners of the underground spoke not of a mercenary or skilled assassin, but a monster, a superhuman creature straight out of a comic book or a horror movie.

Bao shook his head at some of the ludicrous statements he'd heard over the last few days. Ever since the sole survivor of the Italian front group sent to flush out the hooded vigilante had stumbled back into town babbling about monsters, the rumors had spread like wildfire each one becoming more ridiculous than the next.

The Guardian could move faster than the speed of sound.

The Guardian was bulletproof.

The Guardian could fly.

The Guardian was able to twist and rip a gun apart with his bare hands.

The Guardian shit golden turds.

The Guardian made women orgasm by glancing their way…

The list went on.

Bao wasn't certain what was fact or fiction, but one thing he did know. No normal person could leave that kind of death and destruction in his wake. The cleanup in the forest had been conducted by the police as well as a few of the major powers in the area.

The supposed safe house containing the missing children was abandoned. It didn't look like there had been anything there to begin with, but if that was the case why would the vigilante have fought so hard to prevent the mob from approaching it.

Shirou brought him out of his reverie with a clearing of his throat. The white haired man smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "In any case, Bao I'm here to help so just point me to the next task and I'll be happy to get right on it."

Bao turned when he heard the door bell jingle and saw Dutch walk in.

He nodded and motioned to the back door. "Emiya, go grab that green box at the back of the supply room, and hand it over to Dutch."

Shirou nodded and went to comply.

Dutch walked over and leaned against the counter to hand Bao and envelope. "My apologies about that whole running off last time, we were kind of under a death threat. I've included our tab with a tip in the payment for the gear. I hope we can maintain a professional and positive relationship."

The diminutive bartender rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, just get your crap and get out, I got a bar to run."

Shirou returned with the green box and he titled his head to the side. "This is some pretty impressive gear Bao. "This Buoyancy Compensator is top notch quality, most of them are rather bulky and cumbersome, but this one's custom fit and the regulator is extremely precise."

Dutch raised an eyebrow. "Emiya, you interested in scuba diving?"

Shirou smiled good naturedly. "Well, I've been on a few dives in my time. I actually volunteered with a coral reef preservation community for a bit shortly after graduating high school."

Dutch smirked. "Is that so?" "Well now, tell me." he said slowly while taking the box from Shirou. "How would you like to make some extra cash and finally pay your debt off and get a place of your own? I know that crappy shack Bao's got you staying in has gotta be getting old by now."

Shirou tilted his head in confusion. "Hmm, doing what?"

Dutch nodded setting the box down on the counter and picking up a regulator. "We got a request to do a salvage dive and retrieve an artifact from a sunken sub.. It's strictly on the up and up, first come first serve, no hostages or innocent people involved. seems right up your alley."

Shirou narrowed his eyes slightly.

Dutch shrugged and tossed the regulator back in the box and picked it up. "It's up to you. If you're interested I'll tell you more details, if not no sweat."

Shirou nodded slowly. "I'll consider it. Where can I contact you if I decide to help out?"

Dutch nodded. "If you're interested just meet us at the ship. It's docked over here." He scribbled down some directions on a piece of paper.

"We leave tomorrow morning at A.M. 9:00 sharp. If you wanna get a piece of the action, show up before then, or don't, it's up to you. Later."

With that Dutch walked out the door with the green box in his arms.

Shirou shrugged his shoulders and turned around to get back to work.

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><p>"I see, yes, thank you. You've been a great help. Of course., goodbye then."<p>

A Russian woman with a burned scar on her face gently placed the phone back on its cradle.

She leaned back in her chair as a large Russian man walked into the room and stood at parade rest. "Hmm" she pondered aloud. "Tell me Sergeant, what shall we do about this?"

The tall scarred man bowed his head. "I'm still not convinced such a man exists. It must be some sort of trick. At present we don't have enough information to make any movements, so it is my humble suggestion that we continue to gather intelligence and determine the legitimacy of these wild and ridiculous claims."

Balalaika steepled her fingers together. "Well, that's probably for the best."

"Still." She continued. "I do believe our resident superhero may prove more interesting than I had originally thought."

She smiled and her eyes closed jovially. "I do hope he doesn't disappoint."

On her desk lay the crumpled and twisted remains of what was once a stainless steel handgun.

Please read and review.

Input is always appreciated.


	4. What Lies Beneath

Fate Lagoon

Summary:

Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.

AN: Review responses:

OK, so once again, this set of reviews was mostly comprised of people who wanted to encourage me and let me now they are enjoying my work. I appreciate you all taking the time to do so and it has helped me with finding the time and motivation to sit down and continue writing more. I hope that you all continue to support me and enjoy reading my story.

People seemed to like the piggy line. I thought that would fit Revy's style, and it seems to have read well enough.

It was pointed out that my use of key numbers rather than typing them out was incorrect. I will henceforth try to use better prose in regards to numbers like five and one hundred ect..

I don't know how Benny's canon reaction would have been. I'm not INCREDIBLY familiar with Black Lagoon. I have watched the first season and I did some research into the wiki but I probably know more about Type Moon than I do Black Lagoon. If anyone feels that a character is OOC please feel free to let me know and why and it can hopefully assist me in further interaction with that character.

As for Benny's reaction, I felt that he was amongst the more normal moral compass of the crew. So I chose him to provide a counter argument for exposition.

Lately it seems that Balalaika is getting quite a bit of hate. Hmm, I dunno I kinda like her character.

With that, let's get on with the story:

Disclaimer: I do not own the two properties Fate and Black Lagoon. They are the property of Kinoko Nasu and Rei Hiroe respectively. This is a non profit fanfiction done for the sake of improving my storytelling and expanding my skillsets.

Key:

_Flash backs, thoughts, omniscient perspective_

**_Emphasized points_**

Normal speech

Chapter 4: What lies Beneath

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><p><em>Shirou felt the gentle touch coming even before the hand reached his shoulder. Years of training and field experience had honed his senses to the level that even the intent to act upon him could be sensed. <em>

_This didn't mean that he was immune to reflexes, however. As soon as the cold hand prodded him he shot up in his seat his eyes going wide and his hand instinctively clutching the handle of a sword that didn't yet exist. _

_"__Easy there son," a middle aged Japanese man in a dark blue business suit remarked from the window seat next to him. He withdrew his hand and motioned to the front. "The plane's just getting ready to take off and they wanted everyone to raise their trays."_

_Shirou blinked a few times and took in his surroundings. He closed the tray in front of him and noticed his black duffle bag stuffed into the overhead compartment. The small oval window showed the run way flying by them as the plane began to pick up speed. _

_"__First time flying?" the man asked curiously running a hand through his slicked back black hair. _

_Shirou refocused his gaze on the reflection of his own white hair in the glass of the window. "Not exactly, I've flown quite a few times, but I don't particularly care for it." _

_The man nodded understandingly. "I understand; it's not something you ever really get completely comfortable with. He smiled disarmingly. "But don't worry, this airline has a fantastic record and has never had a major problem in its twenty seven years of operation." _

_Shirou turned to him and smirked. "Well, that's good I suppose, though dying in a fiery explosion over the pacific would at least be more exciting as deaths go." _

_The man blinked a few times and frowned before nodding and reaching into his bag. "I suppose that's true." _

_Shirou felt the slight jolt as they ascended into the air before the plane leveled off and stabilized. He lightly stretched his neck as the man next to him pulled out a small black book and began reading. _

_For a few minutes the conversation seemed to lull as the man continued to read and Shirou began to let his eyes wander across the various passengers surrounding him. He was broken out of his reverie by a quite question from the man._

_"__Do you know where you'd go?"_

_Shirou blinked once before turning to see the man still reading his book. _

_What?" the white haired man replied eloquently. _

_His dark haired neighbor sighed and looked up from his book. "Do you know where you'd go.. if you were to die today I mean?"_

_Shirou looked off to the side. "Preferably the Throne of Heroes" He muttered softly. _

_"__What? I didn't catch that." The man tilted his head and curiously stared. _

_Shirou sighed and scratched his nose. "I'm a Shinto Buddhist so I suppose I'd be reincarnated according to my Karma." Shirou turned to look out the window. "Fortunately, my Karma should be pretty decent so I'm not too concerned."_

_The man nodded slowly. He looked back down at his book. He was silent for a few seconds before he looked up again. _

_"__Can I ask you a question?" _

_Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Well, I think we're past that point already.. what's on your mind?"_

_The man nodded and lifted his book. "Have you heard the good news of Jesus Christ?"_

_Shirou finally noted that the worn black book in the man's hands was a Bible. He face palmed and sighed heavily. "Listen, I'm really not interested in religion.."_

_The man shook his head. "I understand, but have you ever heard the message of salvation? If you'd let me I'd really like to tell you about it." He pointed down to his book. "This here is the Roman's road; it's an outline for how you can be saved from-"_

_Shirou groaned and motioned to the Flight Attendant who was several seats down assisting an elderly woman. He interrupted the business man "Look, I told you before sir, I'm not interested in this topic, I'm quite happy with my beliefs and I don't appreciate the intrusion."_

_Shirou massaged his temples. He'd had more than enough of the Church to last him a lifetime. Kirei Kotomine had proven the kind of men that religion brought up. His dealings with the Executors and the Eighth Sacrament had only further jaded his views on the subject. _

_As if that wasn't enough, being privy to the knowledge of the Akashic Root, and The inner workings of the world really spoiled his suspension of disbelief in superstitions and feel good nonsense. _

_The man sighed and placed his book in his lap. "I see, I'm sorry to intrude, it's just that well, If there's even a slight chance I could help someone come to know the Lord I never want to pass up that opportunity."_

_Shirou turned to look at him with a dead pan stare. _

_The Flight Attendant finally came over to his seat. "Yes sir?" She asked in accented English. _

_Shirou turned towards her and bowed slightly. "Excuse me, is there any way I could change seating?"_

_The man next to him turned and shot him a hurt look before looking down and returning to his book. _

_The young woman nodded and motioned to a seat a few rows back. _

_Shirou smiled and stood up to grab his bag from the compartment. "Thanks, I'm sorry sir, but I think it's best for both of us, For what it's worth I hope you enjoy the rest of your flight." _

_With that the white haired man turned and moved to his new seat. He opened the overhead compartment and stuffed his bag in. _

_When he went to close the compartment and sit down the latch failed to close properly and the bag was about to fall out when a large calloused hand reached up and pushed it back in before slamming the compartment closed solidly. _

_"__Hmm, I don't have to worry about a hammer falling on my head now do I?"_

_Shirou turned to look at the man who'd saved his bag and smiled. "Yahshu-san? My goodness, this is a coincidence." _

_The tanned man gave a hearty laugh. "It's good to see you Emiya-san, I'm glad you're well." _

_The white haired man chuckled sheepishly. "Ah yes, I really can't thank you enough for the tool set and all the help you've given me over the last few weeks. I really wasn't cut out for all this carpentry, but now thanks to you I feel like I've got a handle on it." _

_The larger man stroked his small black shaved beard. "Well, you know what they say. When a student learns a bit he thinks he knows something, but when he learns more he realizes he knows nothing." "Give it some time, you'll lose your handle soon enough." _

_Now seated, Shirou took the time to examine the man who'd appeared in Somalia on a rainy day, and had taken Shirou under his wing and taught him Carpentry as well as Fishing, and several other important skills he'd need if he were to continue his pursuit of justice. _

_Yahshu had a blank white t shirt with brown slacks and worn brown leather sandals. His large nose and broad square jaw had set him apart from most of the indigenous Somalians he'd worked with. On the plane, however, the diversity of the passengers made him fit right in amongst a sea of other strange features. _

_Shirou stretched his arms out. _

_Yahshu turned to him and tilted his head, "So, not that I'm not glad to enjoy your company but, what was with the Jerry Springer moment there? Religion's a bit of a sore spot with you huh?"_

_Shirou sighed. "Not particularly, I don't have anything against other people believing what they want; it's just not for me."_

_Yahshu nodded. "I see, he seemed like a nice enough guy though. It'd be nice if more people were actually concerned about the person sitting next to them, even if it's misguided." _

_Shirou shrugged, "Who knows, maybe if he wasn't such a kool aid drinker I could've found out more."_

_The tanned man next to him turned to look out the window. "It's really a shame, religion does that."_

_Shirou tilted his hea din confusion. "Huh? Does what?"_

_The man continued to look out the window. "It separates people. It takes otherwise good intentions and twists them until the original meaning is all but lost. And for what.."_

_He turned to look at his white haired comrade. "Control. Religion has always been about control, it's not about bettering yourself, or serving God or some higher cause. It's bondage, like invisible shackles that make you a slave to an impossible goal that is judged over by hypocrites. In the end it's just the twisted product of greedy men." _

_The bearded man shook his head slowly. "I despise religion." _

_Shirou contemplated the man's words. "I don't know if I'd go that far.. but then again.. I certainly haven't had the most.."_

_' __Rejoice, Emiya Shirou, your wish shall be granted.. '_

_"__er.. pious examples of it to judge." _

_The man looked at him knowingly and gave a hearty laugh. "I see, well someone as experienced as you is bound to have met a few bad eggs."_

_Shirou nodded with a grin. "Speaking of which, I'm certainly glad to see you but what are you doing on this flight exactly?"_

_The man next to him chuckled. "Well, I'd wager that same thing you are… going to help out in that school hostage situation in Brazil. There's a contracting company that's extorting the teachers and it's boiled over now. Once it's all cleared up, the school will need to be rebuilt so I'm going in to lend my assistance." _

_Shirou blinked. "Really? That's incredible, I didn't think anyone else knew about that.. we seem to think alike."_

_The man narrowed his eyes slightly. "Ah, but I'm going in to help rebuild after the situation's resolved, you're going on for a different reason though aren't you Emiya-san?" _

_Shirou's expression betrayed nothing. But it was true. He wasn't going to help repair. He was going to help resolve the situation by taking out the contracting company._

_The bearded man continued. "I've been watching you for quite some time to be honest. I've wanted to meet with you for a while, but you were always so busy rushing from warzone to catastrophe, that you never gave me the time." _

_Shirou's eyes widened. "I don't believe I ever told you about any of that." _

_Yahshu shook his head sadly. "No, unfortunately I was only able to meet you back in Somalia when I took the bull by the horns and tracked you down myself."_

_The man continued. "You know, there are a lot of people who don't understand you. You go all over looking for the most trouble you can find and then when everything's over you vanish. Why would a man do something like that? What's he got to hide?"_

_Shirou frowned but before he could respond his comrade continued. _

_"__But that confusion pales in comparison to the few who do understand at least where it's coming from. The Magus Killer Emiya Kiritsugu used to go around doing the same thing."_

_Shirou's eyes widened in disbelief. "What? But I never told you about.."_

_Shirou's eyes narrowed. "Tell me Yahshu-san, are you a magus?" _

_The man raised an eyebrow. "No, not at all. Though I did know some rather well established Magi from my childhood. I told you before though, I like to keep informed."_

_Shirou kept his gaze cool and leveled on the man to his left. "I see, so you're curious why I do what I do?"_

_Yahshu shook his head. "Nope, I already know."_

_Shirou blinked in confusion. _

_"__The question is Emiya-san.." The man continued. "Do you?" _

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><p>Shirou awoke to the sound of tires screeching and gun fire ringing out a block from his apartment. He popped his back a few times and rubbed the dust from his eyes.<p>

_That dream again.. that was the beginning… looking back on it I really should have seen it coming.._

Shirou moved to get showered and dressed but paused when he went to grab his standard black shirt. He paused when he caught sight of the bag sitting in the corner of his room. He looked out the window to see the bustling city of corruption flowing through the streets.

Shirou sighed and continued with his morning preparation.

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Dutch called out to Benny. "Get that gear on board and make sure the communications beacon is ready to go. We're leaving in 5 minutes. Two hands is already on board."

The blonde former Floridian nodded as he carried the crate onto the ship and Dutch moved to run a final Radio check and make sure his Thai Navy flag was still in good working order.

As he turned to move into the cabin Benny's voice called out to him. "Uh, Dutch.. looks like we got a new crew member coming along for this one."

The Dark skinned man turned around and noted the tanned white haired man leisurely walking up the dock to the loading area.

Dutch tilted his head slightly. "What the hell are you wearing?"

Shirou was currently wearing his usual red and white sneakers and blue jeans, but in place of his usual black collared shirt he had on a bright red Hawaiian Shirt with colorful flowers printed across it.

Shirou smiled warmly. "Revy-san went to the trouble of getting me this shirt I figured the least I could do was wear it. Wouldn't want to appear ungrateful.."

Dutch raised an eye brow and motioned to the back before climbing back down into the hatch. "Just get on the ship Emiya, we're headed out now." "Meet me in the cabin in 10 minutes for mission briefing."

"Aye Aye captain." Shirou gave a mock salute and wandered off on the top deck. The ship gave a small lurch as the anchor was pulled and the engines roared to life.

As he stepped onto the main deck platform he was immediately greeted by a surprisingly good natured Revy.

"Hey, you're actually wearing it! Good not bad, you don't look like such a little yuppie now." The slim brunette smirked as she casually walked over to him and began to circle him with a scrutinizing gaze.

She snorted and turned to walk back to her spot at the front of the ship. "It's good you know how to follow orders and listen to your betters. Keep this up and you might even make it back from this job alive."

Shirou's eye twitched but he kept a neutral grin in place. "I see, well that's certainly my plan, I have quite a bit of work to catch up on when I get back, so I can't really afford to die on some underwater salvage."

The white haired man narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a crouched position next to the brunet woman. "Still, I'm curious. Dutch said that this was a strictly legal and legitimate job, but knowing you all I have to wonder.. what's the catch? What exactly are we really going to be doing?"

Revy rolled her chocolate colored eyes and looked out into the foggy morning horizon. "Don't worry boy scout, Dutch will explain it in more detail once we get there, in the meantime you'll just have to trust us. This job's about as cut n dry as they come."

Shirou sighed and closed his eyes as he fell back and plopped down. He let his head slowly fall back to his cradling hands and took a deep breath. "Well then, I suppose I'll just have to trust you. Honestly, I'm placing my life in the hands of pirates.. how lovely."

Revy lightly kicked him in the side with her green combat boot. " Che, pirates wish they could be us, we're way more classy than some black beard captain hook rejects."

Shirou raised a silver eyebrow. "So you won't be making me walk the plank then?"

Revy grinned showing her sharp canines slightly overlapping. "Well, that all depends on how good of a little doggy you are. As long as you do what you're told, you'll get your reward."

"But." She stated with her eyes growing cold and dull. "If you can't pull your own weight, I'll make you play dead."

"Hmm, well I doubt Bao would be happy to learn of his assistant's disappearance in the ocean so in the event that that happens, at least I can pass on with the knowledge that you will enjoy having your rectum welded shut." Shirou remarked coolly.

Revy's cold gaze slowly began to crack before a chuckle she couldn't fully suppress emerged from her lips.

Benny poked his head out from the hatch with a slightly stunned expression. "Uh, is Revy laughing? Wow, man with the way she was grumbling and carrying on about bringing you along I figured she'd have thrown you overboard by now." "In any case, you guys come to the cabin for a mission briefing. We're nearing the target and Dutch has some last minute instructions for ya."

Shirou and Revy both stood up and turned to follow the blonde haired man back into the main cabin and gathered around the steel table that displayed a map of coordinates.

"Now" Dutch began. "I explained this briefly at the office, but we'll go over the details again before we go in." "Benny, you start."

The blonde haired man nodded. "Sure, well first off let's take a look at this." He opened up a small laptop computer and showed them a picture of a submarine. "It's an old story from some half a century ago. IXC Attack Submarine U -1324 of the German Navy."

"It was a sub in the Wolfpack that tore up the Atlantic. The captain was Major Vincel H. Ava." He remarked as the black and white picture of a handsome Caucasian man appeared on screen.

With a click the image changed to a map of Eastern Europe. "The last order he ever received was to return an officer of the Japanese Navy to Batavia." "But, it wasn't quite that simple. He had to circumvent the allied forces and take a crazy route worthy of Magellan, but Ava actually managed to pull it off."

"However" Benny continued. "When they were in plain view of their destination, the old U – 1324 finally ran out of luck." " The US Navy came across the boat and decided to strike all at once sending the captain and all of his crew to the depths of the ocean."

"But." Benny said pushing up his glasses." "There's another part to this story, a story about an S.S. officer who was able to force his way on boards with papers from the Secret Police."

The blonde man smirked while clicking a new window open. "Now check this out." A picture of a painting depicting a group of armored knights surrounding a Norse goddess appeared on the screen.

Shirou couldn't suppress a small smile at the sight.

Memories of his own encounter with armored knights surfaced in his mind. Images of a time long ago..

_I ask of you, are you my master?_

_Of course, Hunger is the enemy._

_Shirou, I cannot escape my duty, we are all the subjects of fate.. even kings must bow to its will but know this.. For you I will always.._

"It's called the **Twelve Knights Guided by Brunhilda**." Benny continued snapping Shirou from his musing.

"This is the painting that S.S officer was carrying the night he boarded the boat. The artist is August Yanka, an unknown painter."

Revy tilted her head to the side before interrupting. "That thing looks pretty bland to me, I've seen New York subway Graffiti that would put that to shame."

Benny shook his head. "But it doesn't make any sense. Why would an S.S. officer board the ship with only this painting… no official documents or anything?"

Dutch interrupted folding his hands together. "But in the end it doesn't really matter why. The one thing that matters to us is that this painting is preserved inside the wreck of the sub. It was thought to be lost for years, but recently a French Telecom company was laying down underwater cables and they happened across this little gem."

Dutch stood up and folded his arms.

"We've been hired by an antique collector in Spain. This guy's hobby happens to be collecting Nazi Artwork."

Revy leaned over the desk resting her elbows on the side and snorted. "That's a pretty messed up hobby."

Dutch shrugged. "Yeah well, the thing is that several companies are in dispute over the ownership of these waters so no one is able to make a move for it easily… annnd.."

The black man's lips curled in a smirk. "That's where we come in. Not bad for a fifty thousand dollar job."

Shirou sighed. "So we're taking advantage of the squabbling in international politics to swoop in and grab this painting?"

Revy turned to the white haired man who stood leaning against the wall. "Is that a problem, don't tell me even this is too naughty for Saint Emiya."

Shirou chuckled. "I'm certainly no saint, however No, if it's just this much I think I can be of some use to you in this job."

"Right" Benny commented. "So then, here's how this is going down. You two will go in through the torpedo tubes and then close them off. Once you weld the door shut you should be able to open the door to the interior."

Shirou nodded as he stroked his chin. "Hmm, that's certainly feasible but by closing off the entrance we'll also lose our exit."

Dutch shrugged his shoulders. "Just make a hole in the subs hull and swim out. Once we get what we're looking for who cares what happens to it."

Shirou frowned. "Is that really necessary? I considered this possibility and I have some underwater sealant and some blast caps. I don't really think there's any need to damage a historical site like that."

Revy rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't care either way, but underwater demolitions can be a pain, I say we try it Emiya's way then if it don't work we'll go from there."

Shortly after that the boat came to a stop at the designated area. Shirou moved to the side of the deck and put on his wet suit and started testing his equipment. He had just finished with his preparations when Revy walked over to him.

"Hey, you done checking the equipment yet? If it breaks I'll leave you down there."

The man in the red Hawaiian shirt just grinned. "Yes, yes, it warms my heart to see how much you care."

Revy's eyes flared with anger before Dutch appeared and tossed her a black object.

"Here" He said. "A little souvenir Balalaika brought back from her homeland."

In a rare moment of femininity, Revy's excited squeal resounded across the deck. "Oh, an underwater rifle, does this thing have full auto?!"

Dutch gave her a thumbs up and turned to Shirou. "You got your sealant? And everything else you'll need?"

The white haired man nodded as he fastened his respirator and adjusted his goggles. Without another word Revy fell backwards into the water and Shirou joined her soon after.

Benny walked up behind Dutch and placed his laptop on the plastic table. "So you saved Emiya's ass and won her over with a gun.. smooth."

Dutch sighed. "Yeah those two really don't get along. I think Revy's just not use to having someone fire back when she goes off on one of her tirades. In the end though, they might end up being one hell of a team."

Benny shrugged as he leaned back in his chair checking the motion tracking beacons the two scuba divers had taken on his screen. "Or, they could end up killing each other before they ever get over the awkward phase."

Dutch shrugged as he moved to walk back to the cabin. "Yeah, that too."

Behind him Benny made an appreciative whistle. "Wow, they're almost to the site already. Revy and Shirou look like they're pretty used to this kind of thing."

Dutch nodded as he climbed back down the hatch. "Yeah, I never would have hired her if using those guns was the only thing she had goin for her. When it comes to swimming she might as well be a mermaid. And Emiya.. that guy.. He's not normal. I haven't figured him out yet, but something about him doesn't make sense. Anyway, He seems to be competent at least, so that's enough for me."

With that he vanished down the hatch and into the control room.

Benny continued watching the beacons but a few minutes he noted a strange sight.

"Uh, Dutch, you might wanna come up here for a minute. It's a ship."

The black man frowned. "That shouldn't be possible, we aren't on sea route and the Telecom Company's not supposed to be out here for another few days at least. "

Benny shook his head and he gazed through binoculars. "No, I don't think so, that's a research ship."

From his binoculars he could see a white and grey research ship floating slowly towards them.

Dutch joined him and they both waited anxiously for some sort of radio communication to acknowledge their presence. All they received was silence as the wind gently blew across the sea.

With agonizing slowness, the boat continued floating ever closer.

Finally Dutch frowned and rose up his flag before moving to the radio. "This is PT 377 of the Thai Navy, we are currently on a mission here, and we'd like to inquire about your purpose for being in this area. Tell us your nationality, ship number, and signal code."

Dutch waited for the response but nothing came.

He looked at Benny and sighed. "This is definitely not normal. Keep an eye on them and keep me informed. I'm going back to the control room. Fold up your parasol; we've got some unusual cloud activity coming in."

Benny nodded and continued to observe the eerie ship drifting ever closer.

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><p>Shirou followed Revy in through the rusted opening of the torpedo launcher tubes and then quickly deployed his underwater sealant. It only took a few minutes and the entrance was effectively temporarily sealed.<p>

Now in the loading room he moved to the door and began working on inspecting the locked hatch. He stopped and rolled his eyes as he saw Revy placing a detonation charge on the door next to him and he quickly moved away and grabbed onto a rail near the wall.

A few moments later the charge detonated and the water gushed through the small opening and into the sub proper flooding the floor and leaving about a foot of water in the next room.

Shirou casually climbed through the now open door and turned to see Revy already taking her gear off and pulling out a small flashlight. "Hurry it up, Snowball we got work to do, and I'm not trying to spend any more time down here than I have to."

Shirou nodded as he removed his main gear and slung a small bag over his shoulder as he moved to follow her down the dark corridor and deeper into the sub.

As they moved through the dark narrow hallways Shirou noted how suspiciously empty it was. He also felt a slight sense of unease as a strange feeling pricked at his senses. He'd felt something like this before, but he couldn't recall exactly what it was.

Momentarily ignoring it he followed after his partner and scanned the dark and rotten smelling scenery for any sign of the painting they were searching for.

Revy turned shining her light on yet another empty room, but this time she noted a strange scene. There were guns lying on the floor and red blood splatters decorated the metal walls. She entered the room carefully and let her eyes pass over the rotten forms lying on the ground. It was impossible to tell if they were the remains of the crew or some other object or animal.

Shirou sighed. "It looks like there's not much left in here. "Decomposition might have very well taken the painting as well."

Revy snorted. "That would be our luck, well we'll keep looking to make sure, but in the meantime, If you see any clothing or items lying around let me know. If the painting's a bust we'll need to grab anything of value we see of this whole trip's been a waste of time."

Shirou frowned as he picked up a worn and faded picture next to one of the bloody splotches. "Well Revy, let me ask you something, don't you think these people are the ones who deserve to have them? These medals are the proof of what these people did. To you and I they are just antiques but to them they are priceless."

Revy glanced t the picture of the family in the picture before sighing and taking out a cigarrete. She lit it and let out a puff before sitting down on a metal bench. "Oh yeah, Is that how you look at it? Well.. I guess I'll have to enlighten you a bit, I've got a story that's prefect for this atmosphere."

Shirou sank down against eh blood stained wall and turned his attention towards her.

She picked up a nearby skull and held up an iron cross she'd already pocketed. "Tell me, what do you think these two things are?"

Shirou glanced at the two objects and remarked "Well, one is a human skull and the other seems to be a medal or some sort."

Revy shook her head causing her brown ponytail to sway with the movement. "Wrong. These items are both just things. When you strip away their meaning that's all they are. If anything is going to give either of them their value back, it's not going to be some sentimental bullshit."

She turned her cold gaze on Shirou and blew a ring of smoke out directly into his face. "It's gotta be the one thing that everyone agrees on."

" Money."

Shirou lowered his gaze to the floor. "Tell me Revy, is money.. your god?"

The brunette Asian woman snorted incredulously. "Che, it's power, something a lot more useful than god."

"And" Revy continued closing her eyes and tapping her cigarrete to remove some spent ashes. "If you think about it, what else do we really value in life?"

"God? Love? Don't make me laugh, back when I was just a brat crawling around that shit hole city, it seemed like god and love were always sold out when I went looking, but before I knew better I clung to god and prayed to him every single night."

"Yeah, I believed in god right up until that night the cops beat the hell outta me for no reason at all, All they saw when they looked at me was another little ghetto rat with no power and no god."

Revy took a deep breath before replacing her cigarrete in her mouth. "What's left for poor little Chinese bitch to rely on? It's money of course, and guns Fuckin A."

She leaned back and rested her cool gaze on Shirou's stoic face. "With these two things, the worlds a great place."

Shirou closed his eyes and nodded. "I see." "So you believe that money and guns are the source of power in this world."

He slowly climbed to his feet. "This will be a good experience for you then."

Revy narrowed her eyes slowly as she watched him rise. As he returned to standing Shirou shook his head. "I'm sorry to tell you this Revy, but you're wrong. There are things in this world that can be neither purchased with money nor slain by guns You are about to meet such a thing."

The sounds of scraping on metal suddenly echoed through the empty corridors. The unmistakable low guttural grunt and moans reverberated through the sub.

Revy shot to her feet instantly pulling out the underwater rifle. "What the hell?! There's someone else down here?"

The white haired man shoot his head. "No, there's nothing living down here. However, your worldview is about to challenged, I hope you're prepared to defend it."

Shirou reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn dollar bill before tossing it to the confused brunette. "Here, perhaps you should consider praying to your god so that it can protect you."

Revy turned from him to see a figure slowly ambling through the dark. Glowing red eyes pierced the darkness and the woman quickly brought up her rifle and opened fire.

Even through the loud gun blasts she could hear Shirou's calm statement.

"Maybe you can ask him if he'd be willing to part with the medal on his shirt."

"As for me.." The White haired young man smiled and looked up to the ceiling. "I don the Armor of Yahuveh"

_"__I stand firm with the Belt of Truth." _

Revy glared at the approaching figure and her eyes went wide as the being finally crossed into the beam of light her discarded flashlight provided.

It was grotesque. It was impossible. "W-what the hell is this? This isn't some Georgio Romano film you gotta be shitting me!?"

Slowly moving forwards with several holes perforating it's rotting body, a moving corpse wearing the uniform of a German sailor ambled closer.

_"__The breastplate of righteousness" _The man next to her calmly stated with a smile of all things on his face.

Revy continued firing into the monster walking towards her with saliva dripping from his dislocated jaw.

Suddenly the click of the receiver informed her that the weapon had run out of ammo. She quickly discarded it and reached for both of her Cutlass Pistols.

_"__My feet fitted with the Shoes of Peace" _

Revy's rapidly desperate expression turned to Shirou even as he two pistols extended and began firing into the oncoming enemy. "How about you fit yourself with something to help me actually hold this damn thing off!?"

_"__The Helmet of my Salvation." _Shirou's expression was nearly radiant now. His joy and confidence glowed almost visibly.

Revy was backing up now so she was beside Shirou who was in some sort of weird trance like state looking up at the ceiling with his eyes glassed over. Suddenly the deafening click of her weapons informed her that they had run out of ammo.

Switching magazines was out of the questions. With no time and no ability to move to cover or create distance it was impossible. And even if she could, it would just be a waste of bullets.

If you had asked her how she would have reacted in such a situation the proud woman would have boasted that she'd simply punch the ugly bastard in the face and decapitate it with her bare hands.

The truth however, was that facing a creature that had been completely unaffected by her gun fire had frozen her. Her mind refused to accept the gruesome reality that was now directly in front of her.

For the first time since she had been the scared little girl laying on the cold hard cement with the two men standing over her, she felt powerless.

Her guns that she had poured her soul into, every fiber of her being driven to perfect their usage.. had failed her.

No.

They hadn't even affected the thing in front of her. In this situation they had been completely useless. For Revy who had only been able to scrap together the woman that she was today through building a wall made of confidence in the absolute finality and stability of her weapons..

She could not accept the reality in front of her.

Her wide brown eyes saw the creatures head reel back and suddenly begin to lurch forwards. But she did not accept it. This could not happen. These things were not real, she was hallucinating, this must be some kind of a game or joke, there had to be some rational explanation for this.

The creature few forward in a blur of motion it's rotten jaws opened wide and prepared to sink into the supple flesh of her neck.

Revy could not hear anything but the sound of her own heartbeat. The creature seemed to move in slow motion. She knew that it must be moving at an extremely fast speed but for her it seemed like an eternity. A blurry object moved in front of her disrupting her vision but she kept focused on the incoming jaws. The creature seemed to be frozen there with its jaws wide descending upon her.

Her heartbeat continued to thump in her chest. But then she realized that it wasn't just her perception. The thing really was frozen and unable to proceed any further. And directly in front of her Shirou's outstretched tanned hand came into focus resting in the foreground.

_"__The shield of faith." _He said softly.

Revy stared in disbelief as the monster in front of her slammed its head against a seemingly invisible force field of some kind.

Shirou turned to the terrified woman and in a quick movement he gathered Revy into his arms in a protective hug. "I know you've been through a lot. I know that you've been waiting a long time for someone to hear you."

The man's smoldering Steel grey eyes bore into her own widened brown ones. "I know that you don't believe in heroes.."

"But I promise you" The man said softly. "I will definitely save you Revy."

The man smiled warmly and stroked her hair softly. "And one day, I'll introduce you to the one who can save your soul."

Revy's eyes widened again momentarily before the situation totally overwhelmed her and she fainted in his arms. Shirou gently laid her back on a metal cot and turned to see the member of The Dead still hammering away uselessly at his shield.

He stood there for a moment watching the red eyes monster continue to attack before bowing his head and reciting the final line.

_"__The Sword of the Word"_

With that air began to swirl in Shirou's hand similar to Saber's invisible air technique, But rather than a barely controlled hurricane of prana this was something different.

Shirou slashed down and the being in front of him vanished. It left behind no trace, not even dust.

As Shirou stepped out into the hallways he was unsurprised to see a host of glowing red eyes staring at him from the darkness. He held out both hands and bowed his head.

"Trace on"

In one hand an ornate Chinese spear materialized. In the other a large Spartan shield. Taking a defensive position behind his shield he charged into the mass of eyes. The Nazi Dead attacked as well and were easily felled by the skillful spear play Shirou had managed to trace from the weapon's original wielder. His Spartan tactics allowed him to attack and retreat and with the sword of the world still empowering his weapon with a holy aura, and the shield of faith imbuing his shield with innate defense he was well equipped.

A Nazi dead came lurching down the hall from behind him and he quickly twisted the spear in his hands and threw it like a javelin beheading the creature.

Shirou then traced a roman Gladius and raised his shield just enough to stab forwards. The monster in front of him dropped and Shirou carefully advanced forwards making sure to guard the entrance to the room holding Revy's unconscious form.

He smashed his shield into the growling creature in front of him and slashed down bisecting it and continuing his momentum he spun around evading a swipe of decaying claws to slam his shield into the side of another Dead's dead splattering it against the wall.

The creature he'd dodged twisted around and attempted to bite him but Shirou stabbed the sword forward into the creature's mouth and out the back of its head before breaking it with an imbalanced prana load.

The weapon exploded and wiped out the group of dead behind it as well. Shirou brought his shield up to block a wild swipe and then shot his rigid fingers forwards at the off balanced monster.

Before the fingers connected a set of blades appeared on his fingertips and he sliced the creature to ribbons before it could regain its balance.

Now wielding a Black Key Shirou noticed a shadow moving along the wall and he stabbed the blade into it halting the monster's movement. He then flung his weakened shield in a spinning disc attack that he detonated with an overcharge when it was in the midst of the Dead. The resulting blast threw him back and destroyed most of the Dead attacking him but he could hear more of them all throughout the sub.

Shirou frowned as he realized that he was starting to run out of Prana. He would need to defeat the remaining enemies in a single attack.

He quickly dashed back towards the room with Revy and slung her unconscious form over his shoulders.

Shirou carefully traced one of his more powerful weapons.

In a few moments he could hear the sound of several members of the Dead approaching him rapidly from all sides.

He then took a deep breath of air from his backup respirator and then pressed it onto Revy's mouth and clamped her nose. Quickly lifting the newly traced Hrunting Shirou slashed through the ceiling with unnatural strength.

The torrent of water that gushed in from the sudden opening did little to stop his reinforced jump that sent them both up out of the sub and back into the bottom of the ocean floor.

Shirou kicked hard and swam as far up as he could in the time it took to charge the sword with prana. He then pointed the now broken Hrunting at the Sub below them and released it with a twang from the newly traced bow.

As the bow vanished into particles he put all of his remaining prana into a hastily constructed mimicry of Rho Aias.

The Broken Phantasm slammed into the sub and detonated at nearly Mach 5 sending Shirou and his passenger blasting upwards along with a blast of foam, water, and metal shrapnel.

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><p>Dutch frowned as he paced back and forth occasionally looking at the ship that had finally stopped at around 200 meters from them.<p>

Benny was looking back and forth from the ship to the ominous dark storm clouds rolling in. The winds had begun to pick up and the signs of a big storm were clearly evident.

"I don't like it." He remarked. "The beacons are still on but they have been down there way too long.. Something isn't right."

Dutch bit his lip lightly. "Yeah, something, not right about this, but I don't know what we can do at this point. We just gotta believe in Revy."

Benny was about to respond when a rumbling sound and a bubbling on the ocean surface caught his attention.

Suddenly a massive explosion sent the Lagoon boat shooting back and nearly capsized it. A cylinder of water shot up out of the sea into the darkening skies and then raindrops of water, foam, and metal shrapnel came falling down pelting the lagoon and making the two occupants dive for cover.

Two large objects dropped from the sky back into the water with a loud splash, but a moment later the bobbing figure of Shirou re surfaced with his arm around an unconscious and bleeding Revy.

Dutch and Benny quickly moved to get the two of them on board and Shirou collapsed into a heap finally pulling Revy onto the safety of the ship. His own face was bleeding from a small gash above his eyes, but thanks to Avalon the wound was already healing at an accelerated rate.

Revy looked to be in pretty bad shape. She had a broken arm and a piece of metal shrapnel was lodged in her lower back. Fortunately she was had been breathing with the respirator up till falling back into the water from the sky so she shouldn't have taken in too much water, but Benny quickly moved to begin CPR regardless.

Shirou was barely able to sit up. It felt like every muscle in his body was torn and he felt completely drained.

The loud boom of thunder reminded the Lagoon crew of the storm brewing around them and Dutch began barking orders at Benny to get the two of them inside the cabin and out of the rain.

As they began moving lightning flash brought their attention to the now once again moving research ship. As it began turning on the front deck Shirou caught sight of a blonde haired man in a crisp professional Nazi Military uniform.

"H-hey, is that-" Benny remarked upon seeing the painting tucked underneath of the man's arm.

But Shirou was not looking at the item. It was his eyes that captivated the young Magus.

Blood red eyes gazed curiously at the area that had just exploded. The cold unnatural eyes slowly passed over the crew of the ship until landing on Shirou.

Despite his injuries Shirou forced himself to his feet, though he could barely stand and he wobbled as he tried to remain strong.

The man's red eyes narrowed slightly and gave a smirk, before nodding politely and then turned to walk further onto the ship.

Dutch called out for him to stop but the thunder drowned out his calls and the lighting flash illuminated the forms of several dead men in similar uniforms littering the deck.

The ship turned around and began sailing off. As it moved an unnatural mist rolled in blocking the ship from view for a moment.

Dutch jumped into the control room and set off after the ship but when he exited the mist he was dumbfounded to find no trace of the ship.

It had vanished into thin air.

Shirou stood glaring at the spot the man had stood moments before. There was no doubt in his mind. He had wondered how there could be Dead on that submarine, especially when the bodies should have fully decomposed long ago.

Now he knew. He didn't know who the culprit was, but he did know what that man had been. "A Dead Apostle." He murmured.

The others ignored him.

Benny stared in wide eyed disbelief. "W-what the, they vanished.. what the hell? How did they.."

Dutch palmed his forehead. "This mission really turned out to be a real shitfest.."

"Emiya" He stated wearily. "What the hell happened down there?"

Shirou sighed falling back down and lying back. "I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you."

After moving into the cabin he began his tale.

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><p>Shirou had left the boat a few minutes after they reached port. Dutch and Benny had moved Revy to the apartment and called for a doctor to come check on her, remove the shrapnel and re set her arm.<p>

Benny slumped down against the worn couch running his hands through his dusty blonde hair. "So, Nazi Zombies huh? You really think Revy is going to corroborate that story when she wakes up?"

Dutch took a long swig of his drink and he let his head fall back on the chairs head rest. "To be honest, I don't know what to think. Disappearing ships aren't something I would have believed in either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

Benny just shook his head. "Man what the hell is happening to this place.. the last few months have been the most ridiculous I've ever seen, masked vigilante super heroes, Random exploding Helicopters, Zombies, and now Ghost Ships? What's next UFO abductions?"

Dutch turned to look at the unconscious Revy. The brunette woman had taken some tremendous damage. If even half of what Shirou had said was true then she owed him more than her life several times over.

The two crewmates could only stare at the once strong and vibrant woman laying their unconscious and shivering trapped in some sort of nightmare and wonder if she would ever be the same.

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><p>Shirou hadn't bothered to check in with Bao. He was dead tired and still slightly injured. He just wanted to crawl back into bed and contemplate the appearance of the Apostle when he was more rested and coherent.<p>

He unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside out of the rain shaking his wet hair. He peeled of his drenched Hawaiian shirt and tossed it in the laundry basket before walking into his kitchen and moving to the cupboard. Reaching inside he quickly spun around and pointed his 9mm handgun at the woman sitting casually in a chair in the dark corner.

The blonde Russian woman smiled and merely drummed her long fingernails on the counter and watched him with an aloof gaze.

Shirou sighed and brought his hand up, taking the weapon's aim off of her and casually dropped the empty magazine.

Next to her hand on the counter sat 12 hollow point rounds lined up neatly in 2 rows.

Shirou absently checked the chamber to be sure she had removed the last bullet as well, and was unsurprised to find the former Spetsnaz to have done so.

The white haired man carelessly tossed the useless weapon on the table and moved to grab a pot. "Well, seeing as how you're already here would you care for some tea Balalaika-san?"

The woman smiled closing her eyes and clapped her hands together. "Oh yes, that would be wonderful. I actually have many things I'd like to talk to you about Emiya-san."

She picked up a red cloth garment and neatly folded it on her lap as a makeshift napkin.

Shirou noted with a weary glance that it was his Red Shroud he'd obtained from Ceil.

"Or should I say, Guardian-san."

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><p>AN: Well that's the next chapter. As you can see, it's quite different from the traditional canon story. One thing that always bothers me is when people take different characters and place them in the position of the main character and then completely waste the opportunity to use their different personality and abilities and have them do and say the same things that the main character does.<p>

This story won't be doing that.

Please read and review.

Input is always appreciated.


	5. Pursuit of Closure part I

Fate Lagoon

Summary:

Revy didn't believe in heroes. Then came the one who walked countless battlefields undefeated; never once has he retreated, nor once has he been understood. In a city drowning in darkness, an ally of Justice will rise.

AN: Review responses:

Well, finally we've gotten some negative responses. I knew it was bound to happen with the story as I had it planned. So let's go ahead and dive in:

Firstly, it was pointed out in several reviews that Shirou was too weak. He would have easily been able to defeat the Dead without getting drained. Also people felt that his choice of fighting style was too flashy and he should have just traced his two Falchion swords and carved up all his enemies.

I disagree and this is why.

First off, Shirou was not at one hundred percent capacity. He has been running around as the Guardian and working in Bao's bar nonstop with almost no breaks in between. At the time of the attack his energy was already considerably drained.

Secondly, he had to put up a constant barrier force field around the door to prevent anything from entering the room he'd left Revy in.

Thirdly, He traced several weapons all at once and finally ended with one of his Aces. Even after that he was still able to produce a weakened Rho Aias and keep in mind that when it was destroyed all the damage done to the petals went back onto him. He also had to survive and protect Revy from a massive explosion at very close range and from being flung several dozen feet in the air and then falling back into the water.

Keeping these things in mind, I think its perfect logical that his stamina was drained as it was.

For those who feel Shirou should be more powerful, have no fear, as with all my stories most of the characters within will get a powerups and learn new tricks to help combat the increasing levels of their opponents.

In regards to why he used the style he did and did not go with K and B?

Firstly, you have to remember that they were fighting in the very narrow hallways of a submarine on the ocean floor. There was very little room to move. Movement is one of Shirou's most effective tools, and without it he's forced to use a more conservative style.

If you go back and look you will see that his attack style was balanced and borderline defensive. It wasn't really flashy. I chose a Spartan phalanx style so that he could slowly advance in a linear fashion while avoiding damage himself for that reason.

Regarding his normal preferred swords, they wouldn't have been much help. If he'd thrown them and taken advantage of their magnetic affect it would essentially be using them like boomerangs. This is a curving arc type attack. He needed a piercing linear strike to take out enemies and prevent them from surrounding him from both sides as he fought forward.

If he had used them as dual wielding swords the inability to move and dodge effectively would have made these mid range weapons effective offensively but he would have had to engage the Dead at close range with no real defensive options. A spear allows him to keep distance.

When facing Dead or Apostles, I'm going off the ideas that letting them surround you, get too close, or bite you are not good ideas.

Now for Revy's breakdown.. Ok so people probably aren't going to like this, however. When I was first forming this idea and considering how it would work this was a pivotal point.

It was not a cop out.

It may seem that way but really consider the situation. Revy has come up believing that fairy tales and horror stories are not real and that the only two things that matter in the world are power through firepower, and influence through money. In her world, things like Magecraft, Dead, Relics or, even Heroes simply don't exist.

And yet, right in front of her suddenly, appears something that she had long since rationalized away and the tools with which she deals with everything she doesn't like with are useless.

Furthermore What I noticed from watching and reading up on Black Lagoon, and in particular the sixth episode where an un skilled Rock successfully disarms and overpowers her causing her to have a mini breakdown and emotionally crack, gave me a surprising impression of her.

Again, this is my impression only, but I am basing her character in this story off of this impression.

She seems to use violence and her ruthless exterior as a shield. As a consequence I don't feel she ever matured emotionally or mentally beyond that child who was beaten and raped by the Police. She simply began forming a wall around herself and continued to harden it and support it with her reputation and increasing skills.

But because her premise itself is flawed, it doesn't work in the world of this story. There are things that aren't supposed to exist and so she cannot apply her usual method of psychological defense. So she breaks.

Revy is not finished. I do think there is a strength hidden within her. She will be back, and she will grow from this experience.

As for Necrotoid's points, firstly, they were not ghouls, they were members of The Dead. Ghouls are weaker Than the Dead. However, Ghouls are on the chain to actually becoming a vampire, while the dead are merely servants or familiar like creatures.

As for the setting off explosions inside the sub should have ruptured the hull and had the sub taking on water.. They were localized and focused explosion blasts, but you're right I had not considered that fact thanks for pointing it out.

The DA has eaten in the 50 years, and he's been very active. The Crew up until quite recently was comprised of totally decomposed skeletons. They became Dead through a sort of necro magecraft that will be expanded upon in future chapters.

Revy is not dead. He put up Rho Aias and took the majority of the impact, pressure, and kinetic force so Revy's insides are still quite solid don't worry.

As for your reading this far and then quitting, that might be for the best. This story will most likely be controversial. Not everyone is going to appreciate the direction I take and some people may take offense.

Regardless, I will continue to write until my muse disappears or the story I have to tell has been told.

I will suggest, though that you check back in maybe 7 or 8 chapters to see where we're at. I have some plans for the second part of this story that may touch on some subjects that are fairly unique and uncharted territory that people may enjoy reading.

Now on Balalaika.

Hmm, well it seems most people don't like her and have a negative view of her character.

That being the case many people will probably dislike these next few chapters.

I've stated before that I am not as knowledgeable on Black Lagoon as I am on Fate, however I have read through the wiki and seen the first season. I also have my own views on Balalaika. She will be useful in the future so I have plans for her.

Also, Balalaika doesn't speak Japanese, but Shirou does. He uses the suffixes at the end of people's names out of habit sometimes, and so some of the characters will reciprocate, whether out of politeness, or mockery.

One thing people should remember about Shirou is that he wants to be a hero. He's willing to kill if it means saving someone else and there is no other option, but he would rather save everyone. He won't be indiscriminately killing and slaughtering everyone he meets that might have questionable morals. He believes that anyone can change and if possible will give everyone the option of taking a different path. Most will choose not to, but he is still idealistic.

If you all still don't like it I'm sorry to hear that, but at least I have explained my reasoning. I welcome any debate or discourse on any topic or subject within this fic, so feel free to PM, start a forum topic, or review.

With that, let's get on with the story:

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own the two properties Fate and Black Lagoon. They are the property of Kinoko Nasu and Rei Hiroe respectively. This is a non profit fanfiction done for the sake of improving my storytelling and expanding my skillsets.<p>

Key:

_Flash backs, thoughts, omniscient perspective_

_**Emphasized points**_

Normal speech

Chapter 5: Pursuit of Closure part I

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><p><em>The sound of a metal food tray being slid across the dirty concrete floor woke Shirou from his light sleep. <em>

_A gruff voice spoke to him in an unfamiliar dialect and he swung his legs over the dirty board that served as his mattress. _

_He had no sooner taken his first slurp of the bubbling, rancid, affront to all things culinary when the metal cell was once again opened and 2 small men with faded black batons strode into his cell. _

_He looked up and was rewarded with a panorama of bright stars and swirling colors as his head whipped back from the impact of one of the aforementioned batons. _

_More obscure commands bellowed out as Shirou's vision slowly began to return to normal and he felt himself being lifted up by his shoulders and drug along the floor. As his vision equalized he made out the shadows of his captors along with those of the other prisoners dancing along the stone floor. He idly noted a small crack in the floor where a small line of ants were marching out in military order. _

_Shirou titled his head to the side and pondered just what impossible mission their despot queen must have been sending the brave troops of the Fifty Second Airborne Ranger Ant Division; possibly a hostage rescue for one of their brothers from some kid with a magnifying glass, or perhaps an assassination mission to take out the known terrorist commander Grasshoppha Bin Ladden. _

_Shirou lifted his head away from the ground level and squinted at the dark hallway they had entered. _

_He suddenly felt himself being pinned against a steel door while the guard behind him reached into his pockets. The rattle of metal keys acted as a warning to him before he was pulled off the door and chucked into a pitch dark room. _

_He couldn't see anything but he felt the cold and grimy stone floor beneath him. The little light from the metal door cut out like a candle in the wind as the door slammed shut and the sound of a metal lock engaging secured his stay at Hotel le Dungeon. _

_A voice spoke calmly from his right. "Well, now Emiya-san what a surprise to see you here. I take it the head of the local regime didn't take kindly to your suggestion he leave power?"_

_Shirou squinted his eyes and channeled a tiny bit of prana into reinforcing them. He was just able to make out the silhouette of the large burly man sitting Indian style in the corner of the other room. _

_Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Yahshu-san, a pleasure as always. What manner of carpentry has landed you in this position?"_

_The man closed his eyes as if deep in thought. "Well, what if I told you that I knew you'd be in this exact spot at this exact time and I manipulated events for us to meet here?"_

_The man turned to look at Shirou with a calculating gaze. _

_Shirou could feel the intensity of the other mans stare. He still wasn't sure what to make of the strange Israeli Contractor he'd met on that rainy day in Somalia. _

_Yashu's stern gaze slowly morphed into an amused grin before he erupted in a boisterous chuckle. "Or that's what I would've said , but I guess the head of the village didn't like my assistance with the rebuilding efforts despite his attempts to sabotage it. He thought I was a trouble maker."_

_Yahshu then stopped and turned to him with a slight frown. "Unless, perhaps it's the other way around, Technically this is the second time you've mysteriously popped up in a place I was at first.."_

_Yashu leaned back slightly with an awkward grimace on his face. "You wouldn't be stalking me now would you Emiya-san?" _

_Shirou sighed and ran a shackled hand through his whitening hair. "No Yahshu-san, I'm not."_

_The large man next to him relaxed and leaned back against the wall. "Well, that's good. Come on then, I was just about to eat dinner when you came in. You could do with some nourishment. It'll put a little meat on those bones." _

_Yahshu lightly elbowed Shirou in the ribs and gestured to the bowl of slop and some stale breadsticks. _

_Shirou grimaced as he stared at the food on the metal tray. _

_Yahshu noted his apprehension and shook his head. "Come now it's not that bad really, there are starving people out there tonight who would love to have this feast in front of us. It would be in poor form to waste it with that knowledge." _

_He raised his head up to the sky and a serene look passed over his face. It lasted for a few moments an then he opened his eyes and grinned._

_With this he took a crunchy bite of the stale bread and raised a finger up. Talking with his mouth full he gestured to his comrade. "It could use a bit of garlic though."_

_Shirou slumped down to the floor beside him and picked lightly at the soupbowl. "So, do you have any plans to escape, or are you just content to sit there and make the most of your captivity?"_

_The Jewish man chuckled wiping his mouth. "Well, not particularly. I suppose I feel that everything happens for a reason. Obviously you and I are meant to be here and there's a task we can only accomplish here. So it's best to look at things from that perspective."_

_He then slapped his smaller friend on the back. "Life is a wondrous thing Shirou, as long as there's breath in your chest you can always accomplish something. Make the most of the time and opportunities you have in front of you and don't be so focused on the things out of your reach" _

_Shirou leaned back and nodded. "Yeah I see where you're coming from it's just that.. the longer I'm stuck here the more that monster will continue to murder people. I have to get out of here to stop him." _

_The man next to him shoved the rest of the bread into his mouth. "Well, you can't do anything right now. If you really want to escape we'll need to wait for an opportunity. In the meantime, why don't you try some of the bread dipped in the soup."_

_Shirou nodded and broke off a small piece before dipping it and bringing ti up to his face._

_Yashu looked up to the ceiling. "I'll admit it's not exactly five star cuisine, but I do love a good bread dip. There's this restaurant I know of that has the most tantalizing bread dips you could imagine."_

_He licked his chops and seemed to daydream about it before a thought flew through his head. "Say, why don't I take you by there sometime."_

_Shirou swallowed the horrid mouthful and looked at him blankly. "Uh sure, you do that."_

_The man grinned brightly and nodded offering Shirou his hand. "Alrighty then, how about let's say ohh Tonight at 7:25 PM three years from this date, sound good?" _

_Shirou blinked a few times and sighed at his eccentric friend before taking the offered hand and shaking. _

"_Sure I'll make certain to mark my calendar for tonight three years from now, assuming we aren't still rotting in this Columbian dungeon." He said sarcastically. _

_His companion nodded and leaned back patting his stomach. "Alrighty then It's a deal. Oh by the way there will probably be one other joining us, I hope you don't mind."_

_Shirou just shook his head. "Sure, the more the merrier, we can split the bill right?"_

_Yahshu shrugged stroking his small square beard. "I suppose that's reasonable. Though I can't say how she'll feel about that. She's a bit of a scrooge. " _

"_She?" Shirou responded slightly surprised. _

_Yahshu merely stretched his arms out lay back down on the stone floor with his arms folded behind his head. _

_Shirou eventually gave up trying to get anything more from the strange man and decided to Focus on keeping the barely edible gruel down long enough to digest and take some form of nutrient to keep his body functioning. _

_He'd sorely need it when the time came to make his escape. _

_Until then, he'd bide his time and wait for the opportunity to strike._

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><p>Shirou was broken from his memory by a slight shaking and the sound of a baby crying.<p>

"I'm sorry folks but it seems we're experiencing a bit of unexpected turbulence. Please remember to keep all personal belongings and carry-on items securely in their storage compartments and make sure to buckle up" The captain's scratchy voice implored from the small speakers lining the walls.

The white haired Magic user blinked the sleep from his eyes and popped his neck a few times before gazing idly out the window at the dark night skyline. After a bit he turned back and settled into his seat once again closing his eyes and trying to rest his body.

His mind, however, was an overclocked hard drive on Running on 10 cores as he attempted to contemplate just how he would deal with this situation and appease the sadistic Russian who'd roped him into this.

For what must have been the tenth time he allowed the sounds of the passengers around him to fade into a distant hum as he recalled the events of the previous night.

_ "I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean Balalaika-san." Shirou tilted his head in confusion. "Isn't the Guardian that vigilante super hero guy who's running around trying to stop child slavery?" _

_The blonde haired Russian woman smiled even wider. "Yes, he most certainly is. I'm quite impressed with some of the stories I've heard concerning his feats."_

_Shirou nodded and moved to fill the small pot with water before setting it on the stove to boil. _

_The scarred woman continued in her husky accent. "I must say, at first I found it laughable and quite pathetic to think that a grown man would spend his time in such a pointless and asinine quest. However, I've now come to appreciate the remarkable skills of such a person."_

_Shirou was careful to keep a neutral expression on his face as he continued his tea preparations. _

_The woman watched him with lidded eyes that reminded him of a snake observing its prey. "I do wonder, Mr Emiya if this man might consider offering his services for the right price."_

_Shirou was silent for a few moments as he slowly pulled two mugs out and poured the tea into both cups, then setting them on small plates he took one over to his guest and handed it to her. _

_She took it with a polite nod and continued to watch him as he sat down at his table and set his own mug and plate down. He noted that she had yet to sip her tea and was watching him carefully, her smirk never leaving her face. _

"_It's not poisoned." He said wearily. _

_She nodded. "Of course not." She agreed. Regardless of this, she kept the mug perfectly still in her hands. _

_Shirou sighed and lifted his own mug to his lips before gently sipping the hot tea. He made a slight nod towards her as he set the mug back down on the plate and she finally took a small sip herself. _

_After a moment Shirou scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, Miss Balalaika, I don't get the feeling that this guy can be bought off like that. I think he's probably the kind of person who values his cause more than money."_

"_Yes" she agreed. "I think so too. To be honest I kind of like people like that. I find there are very few people who truly believe in a cause. Even fewer still who actually have the ability and will to defend it or the fortitude to deny personal gain to achieve it."_

_Shirou took another sip from his drink and the woman continued. _

"_I used to be such a person long ago." The woman absentmindedly murmured as she fingered her large soviet coat draped around her shoulders. "Tell me, Mr Guardian, do you think what you are trying to accomplish is possible?" _

_When Shirou didn't speak she continued. "When we were sent into Afghanistan we were filled with stories of patriotism and the glory of our Motherland, but do you know what we found when we arrived there?"_

"_An insurmountable task, no matter how much we strived, regardless of the casualties we took we never accomplished anything. I lost Seventeen of my men to take the same village outpost three times after it was reclaimed only days after we'd moved on." _

"_Do you know what it's like to fight every day knowing that it's pointless? Victory cannot be achieved, and in the end the great Mother Russia was forced to retreat from a small handful of desert rats and all of that sacrifice was for absolutely nothing."_

_The woman stared at Shirou with a cold gaze. "Tell me boy, what do you think you can accomplish here? Do you think there is anything left of this city to save? Do you believe that anyone here is going to have a better life because of your actions? Have you considered the blowback and retaliation that those who are viewed as under your protection will receive?" _

_Shirou was silent as he regarded the woman in front of him. _

_She continued. "It's sad, I can see where it's going to end up. You haven't yet realized the cold truth of this world. But you will. You will come to find that all of this trouble you've been stirring is completely meaningless. When that time comes, you will lose that fire in your eyes."_

"_Before that happens however, I have use for such a man." She said leaning back in her chair and observing his reaction. _

_Shirou sighed. "Even if you say that, I don't think the Guardian is going to simply follow your beck and call Miss Balalaika."_

_The woman took another sip of her tea and flippantly waved the air away dismissively. "Oh, everyone has their price, their life for instance." She nonchalantly replied._

"_Or" she continued, "The lives of those children that were recently moved into the abandoned hangar on the other side of the Island. You know the ones my men are currently surrounding."_

_Shirou forced himself to remain calm and neutral but a slight twitch of his right hand gave him away. _

_One glance at the Soviet woman confirmed she had seen the slip. With a smirk she leaned forwards. "So now, I think we've adequately discussed compensation. Let's move on to the terms of our first operation."_

"_Are you aware of the situation in Chechnya?" _

_Shirou blinked. He hadn't expected that. _

_The scarred woman nodded and continued. "Officially it's just some rebels and Islamic extremists who are stirring up trouble and are being quietly dealt with. However, that's a gross understatement."_

_She leaned forward steeping her fingers together. "The truth is Chechnya has just entered a civil war with the intention to break off from the Motherland. The Chechen rebels are hardened and prepared to die for their cause. The Russian government is not currently taking them seriously but they've already sent in Spetsnaz to infiltrate and suppress the rebellion."_

_Shirou titled his head to the side. "I don't see what this has to do with you though." He remarked in confusion. _

_Balalaika smirked. "The Chechens are proving to be very problematic. The Spetsnaz units sent in are superior in number, better equipped and many of them highly trained and yet, they are being absolutely crushed. The Chechens have dug in and are employing urban tactics that are quite frankly insultingly simple and effective."_

_She leaned back and nodded appreciatively. "In fact, it may very well be that the future of war is not the son of Desert Storm, but the stepchild of Chechnya." _

_The blonde woman then leaned forward and placed a hand on the table. "But I digress, Currently the city of Grozny is the primary battle ground for this conflict. Among the seven Spetsnaz Units sent in as first contact there is a certain man that I happen to owe a favor to from my days in Afghanistan." _

_Shirou raised an eyebrow and leaned back slightly but she continued. "The job is quite simple. It's an elementary extraction; I have no interest in the silly little squabble of the mountain goats and the cowards who would hide behind their politics and prestige."_

_However" she remarked. "This man is one of the few remaining debts I owe, and I always pay my debts." _

_She then used her long fingernail to draw out an invisible map on the table. "The Chechen Rebels have currently taken his Unit hostage and are summarily executing them one after the other as their demands are obviously not being met by the Russian forces."_

"_We will infiltrate the city, free this man, and return here where he will likely enter my employ. Truthfully, it's not all that out of your realm of expertise, a hostage rescue is the work of a hero is it not? "_

_Shirou frowned slightly before straightening up and letting his eyes take on a gleam of steel. "And who are we going to be rescuing exactly?" He said dropping all pretense of innocence. _

_The scarred woman noted his change in demeanor and smirked. "That doesn't concern you I'm afraid. If I told you we were going to be freeing Josef Stalin it wouldn't really matter. You will do as I say or you can excavate the remains of your little strays from the rubble of their tomb you call an orphanage."_

_Shirou narrowed his eyes and leaned forwards. "And if you were to do so, you would lose all manner of leverage against me, what's to stop me from killing you here and now?"_

_The woman leaned forward as well invading his personal space and her nose gently bumped into his. _

_Her lips curled into a smirk as they hovered inches from his own. "I welcome you to try. You'll find me to be quite a different breed from the scum you've been mopping up."_

"_I enjoy a challenge." She almost whispered. _

"_But" she warned the first syllable causing a slight pucker in her lips sending them brushing against his. "Be warned, I don't play by the rules."_

_Shirou's adrenaline pumped through him. His senses sharpened and he could feel the danger in her tone. This woman was not a common thug who enjoyed bullying weaklings to feel more powerful. _

_He fought the urge to lean back at her physical proximity. To do so would show weakness, any form of weakness in front of this predator could have disastrous consequences. _

_He was most certainly physically more powerful than her. He was stronger, faster, and far better equipped, and he was within his makeshift workshop with all of his wards and defenses ready and primed. _

_However, he had learned a valuable lesson from his father. Nearly every magus he went up against was more powerful than Emiya Kiritsugu. But Kiritsugu had one advantage over nearly everyone he faced. _

_There was no limit to how far he would go to win. _

_This woman was cut from a similar cloth. _

_Shirou was all too aware that there were people on this planet that would set the world on fire to light a cigarrete. _

_If victory was his desired results, it would have to be when she wasn't expecting him. For everything there is a time and place. This was not the time to oppose her. _

_He steeled his gaze and tucked his chin subconsciously acting to protect his throat. _

_The blonde woman then smiled and suddenly tilted her head to the side. "My aren't you a forward one. Kissing me like that and then looking at me with such passion. You're going to make me blush."_

_Despite her words the woman wasn't flustered in the least. If anything she looked mildly impressed. "I'm glad to see you like this though, after watching you scamper about that bar I was a bit worried you might lack the backbone needed, but I think you'll do just fine" _

_She slowly rose to her feet and smoothed out her red skirt. "Well then, I suppose we can keep my little discovery between ourselves for now. I'll send someone to fetch you when we're ready to depart."_

_With that she strode over to the door. "Good night Mr. Emiya, thank you for the tea, it was delightful." _

_She swept from the room and the door closed softly behind her. _

_Shirou immediately sighed and slumped in his seat as the tension drained from him. He eventually rose up, methodically scanned his room, and removed the listening devices and surveillance equipment she'd set up._

_He was positive she had purposely set them up in the standard locations to test him and see how he would react, but he couldn't afford to allow her eyes and ears in a location he practiced his craft in. _

_Already knowing what he would find he quickly made his way to the other side of the island and was unsurprised to find the location abandoned. No visible sign of a struggle had taken place, but outside the hangar there was one small clue left for him to find. _

_The small knife owned by Ming lay stabbed into the ground pinning a note to the soft earth. _

_Taking the knife and paper he unfolded it and briefly glanced at the contents. A single line was printed across the center. _

_**6:45 **_

_Shirou frowned as he glanced at his watch. He now knew when he would be called upon. He only had four hours to get ready. _

_Balalaika may hold the cards at the moment, but now that he knew of the threat he could take counter measures. _

_Shirou would play her game for now, but he would have some surprises in store for her when they returned._

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><p>00000000000000000000000000000000000000000<p>

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><p>The remainder of the plane ride was thankfully uneventful. Balalaika, however was nowhere to be found. He had been summoned early in the morning and ushered into a small black car with barely enough time to grab the small Red backpack containing his belongings. The car had been taken to a medium sized airliner and he'd been assigned a seat. He had yet to see the woman who was behind this mission of his, but he had no doubt she was watching him carefully.<p>

Upon landing, he made his way through the small airport and as he neared the line to enter the country, he was pulled to the side by two men in crisp black suits and ushered down a hallway and out a back door where a blue car was waiting for him.

The men fell back and the door opened up. Shirou climbed in and was unsurprised to see Balalaika casually reclining on the left side of the back seat. She made no acknowledgement of him and continued her previous task.

As Shirou settled himself and the car began to move he noted that Balalaika was currently loading rounds into the magazine of a Dragunov 7.6x54 sniper rifle. The man lifted his gaze and observed the scenery of the Russian landscape around them as the small blue car maneuvered through the cold and snowy streets.

As Shirou observed the area he felt a small manila folder being dropped into his lap. Returning his attention to the car he picked it up and turned to his fellow passenger. The blonde woman merely tapped the back of her magazine before slamming it into place and pulling the charging handle to chamber the round.

She spoke calmly without looking up from her task. "Read that paper then dispose of it. We will be arriving at the drop point in around thirty minutes."

Shirou nodded and opened up the folder to reveal a grid and hastily drawn map of the street layout of the city of Grozny. Also detailed were common tactics and troop structure of the two opposing forces.

Shirou and Balalaika were going in under the veneer of being Spetsnaz Asset and a freelance Mercenary. One inside the city Shirou was to break off and join the Chechens as a contract Merc to infiltrate their ranks. Balalkaika would act as a Spetsnaz Operative alongside some of the soldiers still loyal to her in service.

From there Shirou was to find the Hostages and inform her of the location. Then he was to create a distraction using his abilities and she would lead her team to extract her comrade.

Simple really.

Well all except for the millions of things that could and probably would go wrong. This was all assuming the guy was even still alive. Balalakika had been unable to discern just who amongst the captured team was still alive. She had very little in the way of information on the inside. That was one of the main reasons why she needed an informant.

After fully reading the document Shirou proceeded to take a small lighter out and set the paper on fire. He held onto it until the fire reached his hands and then her smothered the flame and tossed the smoldering remnants in a small ashtray.

Balalaika hummed noncommittally. "That was sloppy, where were you trained again?"

The white haired man shook his head. "I never served in any formal military force.

This raised an eyebrow on the woman's face but she quickly replaced her look of surprise with one of boredom. "I see, that's surprising, well as long as you complete your task, I don't particularly care how you get it done."

Shirou merely nodded and continued observing the scenery rolling by the war window. "It's.. whiter than I would have thought." He murmured at the snow covered surroundings.

His Russian companion put a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and replied. "It's like a disguise. It gives the appearance of white purity, but you shouldn't let it fool you. Underneath that thin coat is a ground stained red. "

Shirou frowned. But he kept silent the remainder of the drive.

Suddenly the car slid to a halt at base of a snow covered mountain and a large coat was tossed to him.

Balalaika gave him some last minute instructions as she exited the car herself and began the trek further up. "Make sure you keep heading in that direction and you will come to the west entry of Grozny. After that it will be up to you to convince them to let you join their force. Contact me with the agreed upon signal once you've located the target.

With that she seemed to gracefully melt into the cold and snowy wind.

Shirou quickly slid on his coat and pulled the hood over his rapidly freezing ears and reinforced them to aid with their protection from the elements. He heard the car that had brought them pull away and with that he took a deep breath, watched it turn into fog before dissipating, and made his own slow trudge up the mountainside.

* * *

><p>0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000<p>

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><p>Shirou didn't expect to make it all the way to west entrance of the outpost. This was technically a warzone after all. So it didn't really surprise him when halfway through the small canyon leading to his destination the screech of an RPG echoed from a small cliff to his left.<p>

He quickly darted to the side and flung himself to the ground. The rocket whizzed over his previous position before exploding next to a dead tree. The rotten wood blasted in all directions mixing with the rpg components to act as shrapnel.

Shirou was prepared for this though and with blazing speed he reached into his coatflap and muttered his aria.

"Trace on"

When he pulled out his hand a small compound bow rested in his right hand and his left notched a steel tipped arrow. This arrow would have done little damage to an RPG gunner under normal circumstances.

However.

The white haired warrior released his arrow and he knew the outcome even before it left the string.

The Altered arrow pierced the low quality body armor of the Chechen soldier and sent him to the ground in shock. As another sentry crawled out of a hastily constructed trench to see to his comrade and was promptly bolted it the head by a large rounded tipped arrow.

Shirou moved quickly through the snowy terrain and continued attacking the guards he encountered from a distance.

The explosions from the RPG fire quickly brought more attention to the invader and he cursed as he saw more rebels beginning to converge on his position.

Shirou frowned knowing that the more he fought back the lesser his chances of being accepted into the group were. He also knew that it wouldn't do him any good to be blown to bits before he could approach someone about recruitment.

"This is all that troublesome woman's fault. Just join up as a freelance merc she say.." He muttered bitterly.

He moved to avoid being surrounded by taking to a small wooded area.

This turned out to be a bad idea as he found out when a booted foot slammed into his side and sent him sprawling to the ground as he rounded a large tree. He rolled to avoid being impaled on a bayonette from an Ak-47.

Shirou caught the barrel of the weapon in his Bow managed to wrench it free from the enemy's hands. The experienced Chechen soldier merely switched to his combat knife in a flash and began slashing at the white haired man who'd managed to scramble to his knees.

Shirou dodged his opponents compact slices and turned his forearms in to protect his wrists. He carefully measured the distance between them and then on an outside slash he closed the distance and managed to get behind the soldiers elbow.

Pushing the arm down he chopped below the man's frostbitten ear disorienting him. Then the white haired wonder gripped this knife wielding wrist and bent it in with a twisting motion stripping the opponent's knife and slicing his hamstring to drop him.

No sooner had he disabled the first attacker that a hail of bullets impacted the ground and trees around him.

He frowned when he saw the small group of nearly 6 men advancing on his position rifles at the ready.

He gripped the disabled man and pulled him up by the collar of his uniform with his knife pressed against his throat.

"He called out in accented English. "Stop, all of you or else."

The men ignored this and raised up their weapons to fire.

Shirou cursed and prepared to toss his human shield down and run when a voice sang out in a cheery tone imbued with a French accent.

"Well now, this is an interesting development. What might a jap be doing all the way out here hmm?"

The man had short maroon hair and light blue eyes. His uniform signified a higher rank than the men aiming their weapons at him.

Shirou let his prisoner go and twirled the knife in his hands before throwing it blade first into the ground. "I heard there was Merc work to be had in this area., I could use the funds."

"Oh, did you now?" the amused Frenchman chuckled. "Well, that's quite a demonstration you put on there, what with your bow and arrow and knife skills, are ya some kind of modern day samurai?"

Shirou scratched his head embarrassingly. "Well, I work with whatever I have on hand, I didn't think it was wise to walk around with an assault rifle in a warzone, might be mis identified as the enemy."

The man hummed. "Well, that's your first mistake. Rule number one kid, always be prepared. In this place everyone's a combatant. There are no innocents here."

"Still, we took a bit of a beating from the artillery shelling this morning and could use the extra help, I suppose I can take you to see the commander.

Shirou sighed and lifted his arms as two Chechen rebels frisked him and pulled out the Pistol in the pocket holster of his coat.

When they went to take his bow they were surprised to find it vanished. The Frenchman didn't seem to care and he motioned for Shirou to follow him.

The white haired man followed along behind the strange Frenchman fully aware of the AK rifle barrels pressed none too gently into his backside.

Shirou frowned as they walked. "You know, I did avoid actually killing any of the soldiers who were trying to blow me to smithereens."

The man leading them nodded. "Yeah, I know. That's why we're walking to the command base and not carrying back what's left of your carcass."

Shirou grunted and continued on ignoring the pokes and prods of the filthy barrels and occasional shove.

Shortly they reached a small perimeter and the sight that greeted Shirou was surprising to say the least. From what he'd read he expected to find mud huts or a third world village.

What stood before him was a modern city.

Grozny was more urban and sophisticated than Roannapaur by far. The city was laid out in blocks and certain sectors had smoke billowing up from destroyed buildings. Shirou could hear the whispers of flames as small fires burned in isolated patches throughout the city.

Still, there was activity. It wasn't the ghost town he'd been lead to believe. There were people moving about and even kids moving through the streets. Shirou frowned.

This was bad.

This was much worse than he expected. These people were on the frontlines of a battle between Russia and Chechnya and they may not even know it.

The Frenchman at his side smirked noticing his look of surprise. "These are the pro separatists. They might look like a bunch of lily civilians and all, but several of them are freedom fighters themselves. If not actively they act as suppliers or informants. I told you before there are no innocents here."

Shirou merely watched the children running through the small park to their right playing on the swing set. Nearby, a mother sat on a bench enjoying the brief sunlight that seemed to filter in through the overcast clouds.

Grozny appeared to be catching a break from the near perpetual snowfall he'd experienced ever since landing in Russia.

Shirou was quickly placed in the back of a small convertible and they drove a few blocks to a new area with more armed rebels walking alongside the roads and building perimeters before the car pulled to a stop at a weathered parking lot and the men hopped out motioning Shirou to do the same.

He was instructed to wait near a small stack of crates covered by a worn gray tarp while The rebels entered what looked like a small hospital.

Shortly a rebel came out and motioned Shirou to follow him. The pair walked through the lobby and into an elevator that lead to the third floor.

Upon exiting the elevator he immediately noticed the reinforced glass and boarded windows. The floor had been fortified and several snipers were positioned at adjacent windows.

Shirou walked over to a small wiry man who wore a rather comically large head wrap. "So I'm told you wish to join our fighting forces."

Shirou nodded but before he could continue the man interrupted him staring at him disapprovingly. "What can you do?"

Shirou considered the question. "Well, I can fight if need be, but I'm also a cook and I can fix things pretty handily."

The main raised an eyebrow. "You can repair electronics yes?"

Shirou nodded. "Um, yes that shouldn't be too hard. Now about compensation."

The man interrupted him again. "We have fifty five electronic radios that need to be operational by tonight. If you can pull that off, we'll discuss your rate."

Shirou blinked. But her was quickly prodded in the back and ended up at a small table with a plastic laundry bucket of broken radios.

He sighed. "Well, at least I'm here, might as well get started."

"Trace on." He said softly and touched the first of the radios.

* * *

><p>0000000000000000000000000000000000000000<p>

* * *

><p>In the end it had been surprisingly easy to fix them. Most of the radios simply needed to tighten the wiring on the speaker system. The tools and raw materials they had left him with had been more than enough to get the job done and in the end he'd finished the task early.<p>

So it was natural then that he'd then offered to clean up the surrounding area a bit and that's what lead to the commander eventually returning to find him with rubber gloves on holding a rancid plunger in one hand and a small bottle of Windex in the other.

The commander's right eye began to twitch. "What are you doing?'

Shirou's goofy grin slowly faded as he noticed his new audience. "Eh, I am… um, the bone of my plunger?" he offered sheepishly.

"Eh, what's this about you boning a plunger?" came the amused crow of the Frenchman who'd escorted him in. "Now I'm not one to judge mind you, but you may want to keep those kind of things to when you're not on duty."

"Enough!" barked the annoyed commander. "I'm not interested in your oriental perversions. Did you complete the assigned task?"

A large muscled soldier walked over with a radio in hand. "Yes sir, everything's operational again. "I don't know where you found this guy but we could definitely have used him a few weeks ago during the signal jamming incident."

The commander turned to watch the sheepish Shirou pulling off his rubber gloves and setting down the Windex bottle on a thin wooden table. The fetid plunger had been discarded in a waste basket.

The wiry freedom fighter Commander palmed his face. "All right then, we'll bring you on as a trial case. The great one knows we could use the assistance. Those Infidels are increasing the scale of their attacks every day."

Shirou was informed of his wages and given a simple SKS Rifle and A handheld Radio and sent to report in to his squad leader.

He was not amused to find the smiling Frenchman sitting on lawnchair with a cigarrete between his grinning lips.

"Well now, Mr. Fix it, welcome aboard. I'm sorry, I heard you had a bad breakup with your plunger."

Shirou grimaced but the man continued.

He sat up and patted his white haired subordinate on the back consolingly. "Well don't worry, From what I saw the relationship was probably `_toxic_`. His emphasis on the word was not lost on Shirou, but the Frenchman wasn't done yet.

"I bet she was full of shit huh? Hahaha!"

With that the man erupted in laughter and nearly fell of the chair. Shirou just sighed and once again wondered why he'd made that ridiculous inside joke.

'Well it seemed funny at the time.' He muttered under his breath. Then he spoke up clearly. "Alright Squad commander, Trial Mercenary Hyudou Shirou reporting for duty."

The Frenchman nodded as he regained control of himself. "At ease, at ease, well, for the moment we are focusing on unpacking our supplies for the next few days. We're not expecting any major attacks in the next few hours based off of previous attack patterns, but then again who knows what the Rusky's got planned."

"By the way, you can call me Captain Jean." "I'm sure you can tell, but I'm a former Legionnaire. Like you, I go where things seem to be most interesting and where there's a pretty frank to be had."

Shirou nodded. "Understood, sir. Should I help with unpacking or is there another task you'd like me to work on?"

Jean studied him for a moment. "Hmm, you said you cook right?"

Shirou nodded slowly. "Yes sir, I'm no master chef, but I can make a few dishes."

Jean nodded. "Well, me and the rest of the boys will be by in about an hour and half. "Try to have something for us to eat by then. With that he shooed him off dismissively and Shirou left to find the kitchen area whose location his Captain conveniently forgot to mention.

Half an hour later in a small dingy kitchen area on the fourth floor of the apartment building his Squad had barricaded Shirou finished prepping his ingredients and the prompt bubbling of the water in a pot alerted him it had come to a boil.

Shirou wiped his hands on his apron and moved to grab the bowl of chopped vegetables when a screeching noise rang through the air moments before the entire building shook and the lights cut out leaving the white haired chef standing there in the dark.

Shirou's enhanced eyes allowed him to see the various bowls of ingredients spilled all over the floor and counter and then another explosion rocked the building again shaking some dust from the roof and causing him to sigh.

His portable Radio crackled to life. "The Russians are attacking; I repeat the Russians are attacking all able bodied fighters report to your squads and assigned positions!"

Shirou looked up as a small piece of the roof above him creaked then collapsed on top of the stove denting the metal and causing sparks to shoot up.

He frowned as he began to untie his apron. "Hmm, I foresee this becoming problematic."

Still it did give him an opportunity. With the Rebels focusing on repelling the Russian forces and his alias 'Hyudou Shirou' conveniently being trapped in a small kitchen under heavy artillery fire the Guardian would be free to roam the city with minimal interference.

With a little luck he might even find and rescue the hostages and be done with this whole matter by the end of tonight.

Two minutes later a red and black streak shot out of a four story window and landed with a crunch on a shorter rooftop. He slowly rose up to his feet and in the fading light from the sunset he made out the silhouetted figures of a group of 5 men armed with sniper rifles and Automatic Sub Machineguns.

This wouldn't have been that bad, except there were similar groups on several dozen rooftops scattered in a pattern that conveniently surrounded him. Thanks to his explosive exit from the building above nearly all of them now had their attention focused on him.

A quick glance off the side of the building showed a line that must have stretched a mile long of heavy armored vehicles and tanks with Russian infantry support slowly advancing forwards in the deserted streets below.

"Who the hell are you!" Terribly accented English rang out from his front.

Shirou knew it wasn't the time but he really couldn't help himself.

"I'm the gosh darn Batman! "

As he said this, the red cloth from his shroud and face scarf entered his peripheral vision.

"Er, actually, maybe the Red Hood would be better?"

"Infidel! kill him!" rang out amidst the sounds of full auto selectors clicking into place and he sweat dropped.

Ok so maybe minimal interference was a bit optimistic.

* * *

><p>Well it's been quite a while since my last update. I've had about 60 percent of this done for like 7 months. I just kind of got really busy and focused on other things. I apologize to those of you who are fans of this and had to wait so long. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next.<p>

It shouldn't be that big of a wait for updates from here on, but we'll see.

Next chapter is the next part of the Balalaika arc.

Please read and review.

Input is always appreciated.


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